Lucy WalthamGeller
by absnab
Summary: Emily Waltham had Ross' daughter, Lucy, 13 years ago, but she didn't tell him. She gave her up and 12 years on and she gets a phone call from a certain Friend. Ross offers to come across to England where she lives, with the gang and there children to get to know his daughter, but there is more to her story than meets the eye. Please read and review :D
1. Chapter 1

this is my first fanfic so i don't know if it will be any good but I thought it had potential so yer. I just want to say i have dyslexia so that's why I'm sure some of it will not make sence or will be spelt wrong or what ever so I apologise in advance.

disclaimer - i do not own friends

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Looking down at the piece of paper, a small tear slid down her cheek; yet another birthday alone. Written on the paper was 'Lucy Waltham-Geller born on January 21st 1999. Mother-Emily Waltham, Father-Ross Geller' then a few lines down it read,

'I realise that you must hate me for giving you up but the thing is I just can't bare to look at you; you see when I look at you all I see is your wretched father. He does not know about you and I would prefer to keep it that way.

Your father and I were young and in love, we rushed into things and when we got married we had only known each other a few months. When we said our vows he said the wrong name, his ex-girlfriend's to be precise. So there I was, humiliated in front of all my friends and family. And then a week later I found out that I was pregnant...

Your father was desperate for us to work things out, so I did not tell him about you, because I wanted him to be with me because he loved me, not because he felt obligated to. However I had terms and conditions to us getting back together which he did not accept, so there I was pregnant and alone.

You may think why did I not get an abortion? But I do not agree with it, so there it is. But I was going to keep you because I had gotten back together with my ex, Colin, but when you were born I could hardly look at you, because you looked so much like your dad and that is why you are now reading this, but I hope that you are happy with a loving family and well looked after.

Emily Waltham'

The last line almost made her laugh. Happy! It had been a long time since the twelve-year-old had been happy. Yes, she had been adopted; but it did not last. At the age of four her father, John Grey, had died in a car crash, her mother, Lisa Grey, then turned to drink and after a year the young child was taken to a children's home and the search for a Foster Carer started.

She had moved from one foster home to another. The first had been fine but at school she was bullied, so she refused to go to school and then started acting up about anything and everything. After staying there for 6 months she was taken back to the children's home. Now seen as a trouble child no one wanted her and her mother was still heavily drinking. The next home was a very scary place for a seven-year-old, full of rowdy teenagers, one of which gave her a vodka shot and an LSD.

Once again she was removed and placed into another home. They were nice enough, but by now she had some issues and when it was discovered that her foster parents were going to have a baby it was decided she was not safe to have around such a young child. Then at age ten she stayed in the children's home occasionally seeing her mother who was now trying to clean up her act but failing miserably. Although, truth be told, Lucy no longer wished to be a part of the Grey family and had since dropped the surname and gone back to Waltham-Geller.

"Happy birthday!" Adam screamed as he ran into the room she shared with a girl named Sophie who was eleven. Quickly composing herself, she smiled at the hyper four-year-old. No one wanted a kid who was constantly charged no matter how little sugar you gave him. It was always like that, those who no one wanted were left in the home, but the cute sweet ones were gone in a flash. That's why no one wanted her; she was emotionally scarred and actually had a few physical scars from her time in school. Wherever she went, it seemed she would always be bullied; but at least now in secondary school she had made a few friends.

"Thanks Adam," she forced a smile.  
"Someone's on the phone for you" Adam added. Lucy gave a doubtful glance. "They said there were looking for you anyway..." he too seemed to find it hard to believe.

Once down stairs she was handed the phone by one of the adults who ran the foster home.

"Hello? Lucy Waltham-Geller here..." silence... "Hello... is this a joke?" She heard some muffled noise

"David! ... Get... now...! Give it ...!"

"Hello?"

"Sorry about that. My son has had too much Fanta again. " She was met by an American accent. Whoever was on the other end of the phone sure had a hectic life, she thought as more shouting and then crying was heard. "So... I... er... am... I'm you father..."

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Thanks for reading and plaese leave a review big or small :)


	2. Chapter 2

Hi thanks for the reviews, oh and if anyone at any point can think of a better title i am open for ideas :)  
disclaimer - i don't own friends

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Chapter 2

Whoever was on the other end of the phone sure had a hectic life she thought, as more shouting and then crying was heard. "So... I... er... am... I'm you father..."  
"Is this a joke or... or... like a star wars re-enactment or... something" she tried to laugh off the preposterous suggestion, how could this be her dad?  
"This isn't a joke, but I'm impressed by your knowledge of star wars. Once me and my wife, when we were going out the first time, we, well lest just say that..."  
"I don't think I want to know" Lucy cut him off.  
"Yer sorry... i want to apologise for not being in your life so far but to be fair I only found out about you yesterday and I only didn't call cos it was late and I wasn't sure about the time difference between New York and London you know"  
Why was he calling her now? A million questions where running through her head but all she could say was "what? Oh and just cos I'm British does not mean I live in London" she told him.  
"Oh well sorry, I just assumed, you know Emily lived in London so... where do you live then?"  
"Newham" she said under her breath.  
"But isn't that in London... it's where the Olympics are going to be held right?"  
"I didn't say that I didn't live there I just said you shouldn't assume" she answered "it's like me saying your American so you must live in New York or some were like that."  
"well I live just outside new York actually but never mind"  
"oh..."  
"So anyway I was thinking if I got a flight out with the rest of my family then you know we could talk and maybe I could be more involved, but it all up to you." She slumped onto one of the sofas as he rambled on about his friends and family. She was only half listening when he started talking about the day he first met his wife, Rachel and then the day she came to live with someone called Monica. Out of nowhere a flurry of black pounced on her in excitement; she squealed and shoved the dog off onto the floor. "You ok?" Ross asked concern flooding his voice.  
"Yer my dog, Sammy, just ran in and jumped on my lap, it took me by surprise, that's all" the mutt on the floor looked longingly into her eyes but the rules were that he was allowed inside but not on the furniture. She had been given him on Christmas a year ago from her old foster family whom she was still in touch with. She loved him to bits and she treated him like a person most of the time. He was the one who she told all her secrets and worries to, he would not judge her or tell anyone.  
"Oh ok, so you have a dog, Chandler won't like that..." his voice faded away as though deep in thought.  
"Who's he again?"  
"Have you even been listening?"He was only half joking "He's my old college roommate...married Monica, he's your uncle?"  
"Oh yer I remember now, you see it's just a lot to take in" she lied, how did that make him her uncle... unless this Monica person was her dad's sister? But she would have known that by now right? But then when she thought about it she really had not been listening at all.  
" ... so I'll try and get a flight down sometime in th holidays, would you like just immediate family, or all my close friends and your grandparents? Cos I mean you're going to see them on a weekly basis when you move in with us" he said casually, damn that must have been one of the things she had agreed to when she wasn't listening.  
"All of 'em, I guess but like... when I meet them if there is a lot of them, can I see them in like family groups or something?" she asked suddenly nervous.  
"Sure, we will take it slow, don't want to overwhelm you do we?" If it were anyone else she would have made a comment like 'I not a baby of something, you're not going to overwhelm me' but this was her real dad and she would not ruin it by being offended by his kind gesture whether she found it insulting or not.

Ross put down the phone, and went to find his son. On the stairs sat the young 4 year old with tear stained cheeks. After the sudden buzz of excitement had faded it seemed that his wife Rachel had told him off for stealing her engagement ring and almost dropping it down the sink. "Daddy, mommy shouted at me" David whined. Ross gave him a disapproving look before caving into the puppy dog eyes and carefully explaining what he did wrong. "So can I get off the naughty step now?" David asked.  
"Only if you go and apologies to your mother" Ross reasoned, with a quick nod of his head David ran upstairs into Ross and Rachel's bedroom.

Ross sat on the couch reading the paper, thinking more about his newfound daughter than what he was reading. "Want to talk about it?" Rachel asked coming into the room. Ross nodded slowly. After a minutes silence Rachel realised she would have to start the convocation. "So... did she want to meet you?" Ross nodded "so... a British daughter... that's... interesting... " Rachel struggled with what to say.  
"I just can't believe that Emily didn't tell me... I had a right to know and now it's too late I mean, yer, she wants to see me but when we talked she seemed really distracted. The lady who runs the place, said not to expect much, cos she has had a rough life and does not really let anyone in. what am i meant to do?"  
" i don't know" Rachel admitted "What happened?"  
"She wouldn't tell me, confidentiality or something"  
"But you're her father!"  
"But I haven't got custody or parental rights so I have no right to know unless she tells me herself, we're also going to all be supervised when we visit her but I think that's just health and safety procedure."  
"When are we going to meet her?"  
"Well spring break isn't to far away and she will be off school too, so no one will miss any school. But I don't know if everyone will be able to get tickets, but as long as us four, Ben, Monica and Chandler and their two and of course mom and dad can come it'll be fine"  
"That's still four, five, nine, eleven. Eleven people." Rachel counted.  
"Less than having Phoebe and Mike plus their two, and then Joey and Alex." Ross reasoned.  
"I thought they were on a break?"  
"Who knows...?" Ross replied dismissively.

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thanks for reading and please review :)


	3. Chapter 3

Hi thanks for the reviews although a few more would be nice *hint hint*  
just to clear up who is related to who for those who are confused:  
ross has ben 17, lucy 12, emma 9 and david 4 - emma and david are ross and rachel  
Chandler and Monica still only have Erica and Jack 7  
Phoebe and Mike have Daisy 6 and Couger 3  
Joey has no kids but has an on off relationship with Alex (from 'joey')

i have only seen a few joey episodes so i don't really know what happens in it so if i mention any thing from his time in la it will probarly be made up of true but little detail

wow that was long :/

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Chapter 3

"Once again Ms Grey, I just want to thank you for letting me know about Lucy." Ross said down the phone  
"I thought she had a right to know who you are and well so do you, it's the least I could do, I have been a lousy mum, even worse than her birth mum." Lisa Grey replied. "She deserves a family and that last year I spent with her, well I just needed to make it up to her, so I spent the last few years searching for you, and calling different people in the hope that they were you."  
"Well thanks again." Ross said  
"You're welcome, and just to let you know I won't stand in your way if you want to get full custody."  
"Thank you." Ross said happy that he would not have to fight for it.  
"Well I best go."  
"Ok, well thank you and good bye."  
"Bye" Ross put the phone down.

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

"Come on Ross we have got to leave... like now." Rachel yelled from the car.  
"You sound like Monica." Ross snorted  
"I do not! Now come on!"  
"I... I'm not sure if I want to go..." Ross said quietly  
"What, why?"  
"What if she doesn't what to talk to me or hates me or something" Ross mumbled.  
"You're being stupid, now get in the car!" she almost shouted. "Emma, David! Come on we're leaving!" the two children sprinted down the stairs and ran into the car. They set off to pick Ben up and then went to JFK Airport.

"Chandler get off your bum right now!" Monica shouted  
"Alright I'm coming I just want to see the end of this film Joey's bits coming up." he called from the sitting room.  
"Chandler" She said sternly "even the kids are ready and we only have five hours till we need to board" she said, exasperated.  
"Ok mom." he joked "Oh and honey we have more than enough time, I doubt they'll even let us check in right away" he said as he pulled himself out of the chair.

Ross sat next to David and a few seats away sat Emma and Rachel, Ben however was sat at the opposite end the plane. The plane journey was long and tedious; Ross sat imagining all the different ways he and his daughters meeting could go. Most of them ended badly. Monica and Chandler's flight would arrive about 3 hours after theirs and they would meet at a cafe, ten minutes from the foster home. His parents would come tomorrow afternoon. After an agonising 7 hours they reached Heathrow, and began the familiar walk to baggage claim and then to get a cab.  
"Ross, I thought we were going to Newham?"Rachel questioned him.  
"We are, we're just going... the scenic route?"  
"Ross?" she asked again.  
"Fine, I have some...unfinished business" he replied quietly.

Ten minutes later they arrived at a house with a big gate out front and a beautiful garden. The house its self was breath taking. It was an immaculate white with big grand pillars holding up the balcony above the front door. It had a big French window with a water feature a few yards in front. "Ross is this where Emily lives?" Rachel asked, even though she new that was where they had been heading, she had never expected this.  
"Stay in the cab, I won't be long ok" Ross said as he got out, avoiding the question.  
"Where's daddy going?" David asked  
"To talk to an old friend... right Rach?" Ben answered for her, Rachel just nodded, worried about the impending argument. Deciding it would be best if she went to find Ross, she got out.  
"Keep an eye on them please Ben" she asked.  
"Rach? I don't think dad will be happy if you leave, he knows what he's doing, or at least wants to do it himself." Rachel knew he was right and sat back down and started fidgeting.

Ross knocked on the door. After a few seconds a boy of about seven opened the door. "Hello"  
"Is Emily Waltham here?" Ross asked trying to keep his cool.  
"Mummy!" The boy cried.  
"I'm coming honey." Called the all too familiar voice. As she approached the door the smile left her face and was replaced by a hateful look. "What do you want?" she spat.  
"I want to ask you why you didn't tell me I had a daughter, what right did you have to not tell me and then give her up? If you had just called me I could have had her or something." He spat back.  
"Well I didn't want to have you stay married to me just because you had to and how dare you tell me what right I had! She was my child and I was going to keep her and tell you... maybe. But when she was born all I saw was you and when I see you, you know what I see? I see hate cos I hate you and all your little friends and especially Rachel! When you said her name I could feel everyone's eyes on me, I know they would have been looking at me before but they were full of 'I told you so's and 'that's what happens when you rush in without thinking'. Everyone thought we would never last and right there they were being proven right. And after I had told them that'll never happen and we love each other so much. All that love went then and there, all I felt for you was hatred. When I found out I was pregnant... you have no idea what turmoil I went through. I was disowned by everyone and..." she shouted before being cut off. Behind her legs came a small girl, about three.  
As she peered out with a terrified look on her face she said. "Mummy, why are you shouting? It's scaring me." she cried.  
"I'm sorry darling, Mr Geller was just leaving" she said as she slammed the door in his face.  
"We're not done Emily!" he shouted through the door before walking away back to the cab. He slummed onto his seat and gave the driver the next address.  
"What did she say dad?" Ben asked, the only one of the kids to remember Emily.  
"Not much, just that she looked too much like me, so she hated her for that, then her daughter came in crying cos we were shouting."  
"Oh" both Ben and Rachel chorused thinking that there was probably a bit more than that, but they had been too far down the drive to hear anything but muffled shouting.

By the time they arrived at the cafe Monica and Chandler were already there, wondering where they were. The two girls started talking straight away while the three boys's, having a bigger age gap, hovered around their parents who chatted while having some coffee.

"Ready?" Monica asked Ross.  
"Not really, but she'll be expecting us soon." Ross sighed. Chandler gave him a reassuring pat on the back before, sliding his hand into Monica's.  
"Come on kids, we're going". Rachel said. David ran to catch up and grabbed Ross's hand.  
"Where are we going dad?" Jack asked.  
"I already told you, we're going to see your new cousin" Chandler said for the umpteenth time.  
"But I don't want another cousin, I already have three" he whined.  
"Well tough, you're getting one." Monica and Chandler said together.

As the group approached the door everyone was silent. Anticipation, excitement and worry filled the air. Ross held his breath, slowly lifted his hand and rung the door bell. This was a moment that would change his life forever.

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thanks for reading aand please review :)


	4. Chapter 4

thanks for the reviews

disclaimer - i don't own friends or any of its characters.

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Chapter 4

Lucy paced the length of her room wondering when her father would arrive. She had so many questions but she had a feeling some of them could only be answered by her mother who she was sure she would never meet. Part of her had wanted to find her birth mother before but the fear of what she might say to her always made her change her mind and just keep going in the misery she call life. The biggest question that kept fighting its way to the surface of her mind was who on earth told him of her existence. Because it sure as hell was not her birth mother, and she was sure that her mum was too drunk or hung-over to do anything useful these days, despite what she always said about quitting.

"Just stand still for one second, please! I'm trying to read." Her roommate Sophie demanded. "You're making me motion sick. Both of you stop!" About ten minutes before Harry, another of the kids, had started copying her. When neither stopped she groaned and left the room. After another ten minutes of pacing there was a knock on the door. Immediately she ran down to come face to face with none other than Joey Tribbiani. She was too shocked to be disappointed. He looked at her; a shocked expression appeared on his face, one which was mirrored by her own. Eyes wide he gasped and pointed "Oh my gosh, someone turned Ross into a little girl!"  
"Hey! I'm not a little girl! And what are you doing here? Wait are you friends with my dad?" it suddenly occurred to her that Ross was the name of her dad and her birth mother had said in the letter that she look a lot like him, too much like him, she thought bitterly.  
"We're here to meet Lucy Geller, wait ... oh you're her, that makes sense now. Is Ross here yet?" It was then that she saw a blond woman and dark brown haired man with two kids standing behind him. One was little more than a toddler; he had the most amazing sandy coloured hair and sea green eyes, the other was about six; she had soft curly brown hair and bright blue eyes. Both were so different but it was clear that they were bother and sister.  
"No, and its Waltham." Lucy stated  
"What?" Joey asked  
"Its Lucy Waltham-Geller"  
"Oh."  
"I keep it out of heritage, nothing else" she said, sensing that they wondered why she had kept it after everything she did. "Technically I'm still Grey, but I don't ever write it down, I don't want to be part of that family anymore!" The blonde lady stared at her inquisitively. "What?"  
"Oh... well I was just wondering... I mean... are you sure you're from England?"  
"What kind of question is that? Corse I'm British, what did you expect, me to sound like the Queen." She laughed.  
"Well it's just that you mum did, so I just thought..."  
"Well I'm sorry to disappoint you... blondie... I wasn't brought up in the same society as her. Round here we all sound like this and well most of the country doesn't sound like the queen. Welcome to the real England, full of normal speaking people and by the way I've never met the queen!" Joey gasped at the last part.  
"Even I've met the queen." Joey said in surprise.  
"Well you're famous so... you know."  
"Mon will be so disappointed, she brought her fancy plates and everything!" the blonde lady said. "Oh and I'm Phoebe, this is my husband Mike and these are our kids Cougar and Daisy"  
"Okay..." she said slowly "what about fancy plates?"  
"You see Monica has special plates if the queen ever comes to dinner..." Mike said  
"In America?" Lucy cut him off.  
"Yup" he said popping the 'p' "and she brought them just in case she saw her over here, but if you've never even meet her then there's no chance she'll need them." Mike explained. It was then that Lucy realised several of the girls, including Sophie, were all swooning over Joey; which was weird seeing as he was old enough to be their dad. She still could not understand why he was friends with her dad.  
"Oh Joey... girls. Girls, Joey and this is Phoebe, Mike, Daisy and ... Cougar" she said in an attempt to normalise the situation. But Joey had a disapproving look on his face. Lucy gave his a questioning glance.  
"Uncle Joey." He said almost, it seemed in a strop. Lucy just looked confused.  
"Oo, oo and Auntie Pheeb's and Uncle Mike" she said with a massive grin.  
"I thought Chandler was my uncle and possibly Monica my aunt?" she was very confused now.  
"Monica by blood, Chandler by marriage and us by choice" Mike smiled.  
"Okay" she said finally understanding. "Where'd your kids go?" she asked Suddenly aware of their disappearance. With a quick look at the space in which they had stood, Mike and Phoebe then ran off in search of them round the house.

The doorbell rang a few seconds later. "You have a doorbell?" Joey said miffed that he had not found it. Lucy nodded her head as she opened the door to see someone who could only be her father, no wonder Joey had though she was Ross in the form of a little girl. Nothing could describe what she was feeling, all emotions swimming around her head; it felt like a dream or a film just without the music. They stared at each other until a dark brunette woman said "Could we come in? Cos I'm freezing. I mean it's meant to be summer!" she complained.  
"Welcome to England." She said with a smile. "It rains all year round." As they all piled in they saw Joey.  
"Joey? How did you get here?" the other guy, that must have been Chandler, asked.  
"I can get anywhere I want" he said with a smile. "Phoebe, Mike, Daisy and Cougar are here too." Just as he said that Cougar, along with Adam, ran out in front of them. Ross still hadn't said anything, so it was left for the rest to introduce themselves.  
"So, well I guess we'd better introduce ourselves" the brunette said "I'm Rachel, these are mine and Ross's kids, Emma and David, Ben is the result of his first marriage." She was interrupted by Ben before she got any further.  
"You make it sound like I'm a bad thing" he complained.  
"You know what I meant. Any way this is Chandler, this is Monica and their kids Jack and Erica." She said with ease.  
"So you're all related to me except you, and Chandler, by blood I mean?" she asked Rachel, just to double check.  
"Well Jack and I are adopted so technically you're not related to us but that doesn't matter really." Erica said.  
"Ok cool." There was an uncomfortable silence before Phoebe and Mike came in holding a child each.  
"So Lucy, why don't you tell us about yourself?" Mike said seeing the gap in conversation.  
"I um... well, was adopted then my dad died and my mum became an alcoholic so I went into foster care and lots of stuff happened: the end" she said quickly the words tumbling on top of each other.  
"What?"Everyone said.  
"I was adopted then my dad died and my mum became an alcoholic so I went into foster care and lots of stuff happened: the end" she said once again so fast it was incomprehensible before walking into the lounge.  
"Ross, say something you're scaring me." Rachel whispered.  
"I don't think she's going to open up any time soon" he mumbled sadly.  
"Ross we just met her, of course it's going to take time, just be patient ok?" she said before following the rest of the group into the lounge. Everyone was sat there; small talk filled the awkward void. It was then that Ben took the opportunity to tell his dad something very important.  
"Hey dad, you know how much you love kids?"  
"Yer?"Ross sounded very suspicious and he had every right to be.  
"Well you know how you said that you want to be a granddad..."

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please review :)


	5. Chapter 5

hi thanks for the reviews but more would be great, i don't care how big they could just be to say that you like/don't like it. any way i just wanted to say i have finally got round to editing chapter one because lets face it the spelling and grammar was just awful. so if you want to take a look at it again it is a lot better, spelling and grammar wise.

disclaimer- I don't own friends or any of its characters or previous plots etc.

please review, thanks

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Chapter 5

"Hey dad you know how much you love kids?"  
"Yer?"Ross sounded very suspicious and he had every right to be.  
"Well you know how you said that you want to be a granddad..."  
"Oh my G*d, who did you knock up?" Joey asked almost exited.  
"He never said that!" Ross said protectively, but then it hit him like a brick wall. "OH MY G*D! You knocked someone up!" Ross shouted  
"You don't even have a girlfriend!" Rachel exclaimed.  
"That's how I roll, hey." He said nudging Joey, trying to lighten the mood.  
"Ben!" Ross was having none of this.  
"Do your Moms know?" Monica asked.  
"What? Mums?" Lucy asked, emphasis on the's'.  
"Yer there's my birth Mom, Carol and then her wife Susan and I guess Rach could count as the third but I don't call her Mom. And no they don't know yet and I'd like to keep it that way until I'm ready."  
"Oh. So did you really knock someone up?" Lucy asked wondering if the weird group of people always had this much drama going on.  
"Ummm, well possibly..." he said slowly.  
"What do you mean?" Rachel asked voice full of suspicion.  
"What are you talking about?" Cougar asked.  
"Don't worry about it, ok." Mike said, but knew that it would not be enough for his inquisitive son.  
"But I want to know" he whined. Soon all the kids were asking what it was.  
"Way to go Joe" Chandler sighed.  
"It's a way to show how fond you are of someone, it's a bit like kissing but not like it at the same time" Lucy tried to explain "but it's just for adults." She added on abruptly. Thankfully that slim explanation was enough for the youngsters. At that point Adam ran in with a very muddy Sammy who had decided it would be fun to jump on every one.  
"So this is your dog..." Ross mused.  
Chandler shot up and started panicking. But this just made the dog even more exited. "umm Lucy please, ahh, get this beast off of me, aaagh!" the dog now had his teeth bared which to people who did not know him would look like a form of aggression, but Lucy knew he was just trying to smile. "He's gonna bite me! Get him off! " The excited dog was now jumping up and down and bouncing all over the place.  
"Sammy! Sit!" Lucy said firmly. At once the dog sat down, it was then that she picked him up and took him out of the room.  
"Thank you." Chandler said trying to recover from the ordeal, while Monica was desperately trying to get the mud off his shirt.  
"He's harmless, he wouldn't hurt a fly. He was just saying hello!" Lucy laughed it off.  
"He was bearing his teeth!" Chandler exclaimed.  
"Exactly, he was smiling"  
"Dogs don't smile!" he reasoned.  
"This one does." She said.  
"Lighten up Chandler." Joey laughed.  
"Guys! Back to the issue at hand!" Ross shouted; making Lucy flinch, but only Joey picked up on it. He gave her a funny look but then decided it was probably nothing.  
"Ben how could you be so irresponsible?" Rachel questioned him.  
"Like you can talk, Emma was an accident, you weren't going out and you used all the right stuff, and still ended up with her, so you can't judge me." He defended himself. Emma pulled a face, and then went back to talking to Erica. Lucy had an awkward demeanour about herself. This was a weird conversation to witness, especially if you were not a part of the group, but at least it diverted any discussion from her. The best bit was that she was learning a fair amount without going into an in depth exchange about their past which would lead to her having to give some answers about her own past too. After the heated family discussion, once again there was a lull in the conversation and Lucy could sense it would soon turn to her again.  
"Soo... anyone want some tea or coffee, or if the kids want hot chocolate or juice?" Lucy stood up quickly up. Numerous yes's were mumbled in response, so Monica offered to help with making them because she knew how they each liked them. As the two of them wandered into the kitchen, talk immediately turned to Lucy.  
"I don't get it, why won't she tell us anything" Ross complained.  
"I don't know, maybe you should do something together tomorrow, like just the two of you, do some father and daughter bonding." Phoebe suggested.  
"Yer maybe..." Ross replied vaguely.

"Where's the sugar?" Monica asked while Lucy poured the hot water into the mugs.  
She pointed to a cupboard "third shelf from the top next to the bowls."  
"Thanks." Monica opened her mouth again before closing it.  
"I will tell you guys you know, just I'm not ready just yet you know. I get that we're family but we still only just met and I... I'm just not ready." Lucy said feeling that she would have to tell them at least some thing. However she would wait as long as she could.  
Monica was unsure of what to say, so she just nodded as she stirred in in the last tea spoons of sugar. Monica pulled a face at the state of the kitchen, if she had a choice she would spend the rest of the day cleaning the place, but seeing as it would be rude, she was focusing on restraining herself.  
Noticing her expression Lucy tried to explain "I'm sorry it's a mess but the staff never seem to find time to clean with all the kids here and well, to be honest I don't think they care all that much, I don't think we even have any cleaning stuff." She said trying to ignore the grim mess about her.  
"No, no it not that, it's just... ok, yer this place is really dirty, and I'm a bit of a neat freak, would you mind if I... er... well cleaned"  
"sure go ahead, I don't think you need to be a neat freak to be bothered by this place though. I'll go buy some cleaning stuff if you want?"  
" No, don't worry, I'll go get some, you take the drinks in and stay with them."  
"You sure you don't want any help?" Lucy double checked.  
"I'm fine." She said turning to leave.  
A second later she popped her head round the door. "Turn left at the end of the road then you'll see a road called 'Harley Drive,' at the end there is a corner shop, it should sell all the stuff you need," Lucy said with a smile. It was then that Monica noticed just how beautiful she was with her jet black hair, the soft curls bouncing perfectly on and off her shoulders. She had flawless skin and the most beautiful blue eyes. However it was easy to see the pain that was hidden behind the small smile. Monica thanked her and left. Lucy brought the drinks in and silently sat down.  
"Hey umm... Lucy don't suppose you're free to do something tomorrow, to do something with your dad?" Phoebe asked for Ross.  
"Umm, well I guess, I'll have to ask first though." She said without enthusiasm. She wanted to get to know her family but that inch of doubt kept creeping in, every time she let someone in they just pushed her away and left her on her own. But she was not going to let that happen this time, if she didn't let them in, if she kept her guard up, then she couldn't get hurt again.

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please, please, please review big or small I don't mind  
and my updates are going to become less frequent now that school has started again and I have spent every night doing homework so sorry.

thanks for reading :)


	6. Chapter 6

hello nice long update today, please review

disclaimer i don't own friends, the characters of any of the brands, bands or anything else that i obviously don't own :)

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Chapter 6

The following morning Ross came over at 10 o'clock; he had no idea what to expect, the previous day Lucy had seemed nervous and had hid behind the others conversation. Today it would just be the two of them, and after having a long discussion over how much time he could have with her with several of the carers, he was going to make every second count. There was little to do in the area and with only the evening to plan what they would do he had opted to take her shopping, guessing that that's what girls of her age would like. However Lucy was not the ordinary pre- teen girl and shopping was not her idea of fun.

. . . . . . . . . . .

Lucy sat in her bed room picking out a random top with dark blue skinny jeans and then a grey hoodie. She tied her hair up loosely and then put some studs in. "Is that what you're wearing?" Sophie asked slightly disgusted.

"Yes... why?" Lucy asked confused.

"Well don't you want to make a good impression?"

"Well I did meet them yesterday, but yeah... why, do you think I should not wear this?" Lucy was unsure as to what was wrong with her out fit.

"Well... it's just a bit... you know what, never mind" Sophie gave up. She herself was wearing skinny jeans and a Jack Wills top and a Hollister jacket.

"How do you even afford to get designer stuff? We only get a little amount for clothing."

"Me and some friends all trade clothes once we grow out of them"

"Still?" Lucy replied in disbelief.

"Where're you going?" she smiled

"Shopping" she replied with little emotion, Sophie let out a little snort before being silenced but Lucy's glare. "Anyway I gotta go okay, so bye."

"Alright, then have fun!"Her voice was filled with sarcasm. "Oh and can you ask someone to put some toast on for me? I'll be down in ten." Sophie asked. Lucy just nodded and headed down stairs; after grabbing a Muller Light and asking someone to put some toast on for Sophie, she had just enough time to brush her teeth before Ross showed up.

Once in the taxi Ross attempted to get a convocation going "so... well I was thinking that we could get to know each other. I'll go first if you want, so I told you stuff on the phone but I have a feeling you'll have forgotten so... well what do you want to know?" Lucy took a few seconds to think before answering.

"Well I noticed that there were a lot of people there yesterday, so I wanted to know how you met them all and also your wives and other kids and stuff." She answered before adding "please?"

"Yeah ok... this could take awhile, but sure" he laughed nervously. "So let's start from the beginning. Mon is my sister, I'm a year and a bit older than her; we didn't have the best relationship when we were kids but we're really close now. Umm Mon and Rachel met at the age of six I think; she lived down our street too... and I got to know her through that. I had a massive crush on her in high school and most of college, boy was she hot..." he lost trail of thought. "_Is_ hot, _is_ not _was_, I meant _is_." He stumbled across his words, trying to cover up his mistake. Lucy just stared at him. "So anyway it was in college that I met Carol, we went out for like... three, four years and then we got married. We got divorced when she realised she was a lesbian." Ross told his daughter shamefully.

"And you didn't know?"

"Nor did she!" his shouted defensively in a somewhat high pitched squeaky tone. Lucy's face was ridden with fear as she shot upright and pushed herself over to the other side of the taxi. A flash back rose to the front of her mind, she quickly tried to push the image back down.

"I'm sorry, I didn't mean to scare you" Ross apologised quickly realising his mistake.

"I'm sorry, I just... I... I don't like people shouting..."

"No, it was my fault, you don't have to explain." Ross felt awful, he was itching to find out why it had scared her quite so much but he know he would have to take it one step at a time. There was an awkward atmosphere for the rest of the journey; Ross would finish telling her about his past and each of his friends later.

Once in the town centre Ross looked around unsure of what to say "so... where do you want to go?"

"Umm, well I don't have any money really, so if we're going to buy clothes we best go to Primark but I'd prefer to go to HMV and get some music, if I can afford it."

Ross smiled at her seeing the misunderstanding "Lucy? You do realise I'm paying right?" Lucy's eyes widened, apart from the small allowance she got at the children's home; no one had offered to buy her anything since she had had a foster family, and even then she had not been a priority.

"Really?" Lucy could not believe what she was hearing, sure he was her real dad but he didn't know her, and yet he was offering to spend money on her, "you don't have to you known I have £6.50 with me."

"Honestly, today is your day to be spoiled, whatever you want, I'll get it for you" he said genuinely. "Within reason" he added. Lucy's eyes lit up at the idea of being able to buy two CD's.

"Thank you so much, you have no idea what this means to me." Lucy said graciously. Ross half expected her to hug him; before remembering what the carer had told him, about how she hated physical contact. "Can we go to HMV then, I really want to get some more music." she pleaded; Ross nodded his head and found himself almost running to keep up with his excited daughter.

Once in HMV Lucy ran to the music section, Ross had expected her to go to the pop section, but to his surprise she ran to the rock section and started looking at some My Chemical Romance, Green Day, Slipknot and many other band's which CD covers scared him. Lucy looked up at him, once she had made her decision of 'The Blackout CD, The Best in Town' and 'My Chemical Romance, The Black Parade'. Ross looked confused. "You sure?" Lucy just nodded her head. Ross then dragged her into a clothes shop and he bought her some clothes.

They went to Nando's for lunch; Ross could tell there was something wrong. "Lucy? You ok?" she looked around nervously.

"There are just some kids over there from my school" she pointed. "They aren't, exactly...all that nice to me."

"Oh" Ross whispered, it was obvious she did not want to be seen by them, but as one got up to go to the toilet they were spotted.

"Ewww what are you doing, are you on a date, are you really that desperate for money!" the girl on her way to the toilets said accusingly.

"This is my dad, you sicko"

"Sure, you little liar, we all know your dad is dead and your mum is off her head on drugs and alcohol." She taunted.

"Shut up Beth! And this is my real dad, as in my birth dad."

"Really, so this is your dad, the one that your birth mum neglected to tell that you existed. Wow, what a great mum!" her voice was rich in sarcasm.

"Hey leave her alone!" Ross shouted.

"Stay out of this pedo." One of the teenagers shouted at him. A waiter came over and chucked them all out, but once outside the bullying picked up again, three boy's grabbed hold of Ross and dragged him into an alley as Lucy was pushed into another one further down. All three of the guys were wearing hoodies and a threatening smile appeared on each face. Ross was terrified but his biggest fear was for his daughter. Suddenly out of nowhere a big fist hit his head. And then there was nothing but darkness.

Chandler looked around the pub, everyone except Ross was there; the kids were all playing outside. The pub was very traditional with a deer head over the grand fire place. They had managed to convince phoebe that it was faked, although even the twins could tell they were lying. A beautiful picture of the British countryside hung on the wall next to the table and there was a very calm vibe to the place. "I'm sorry, but she is not English! I mean I can do a better accent than her." Phoebe was still hung up on this. Chandler sighed and looked down at the text message Ross had sent him with a grim expression. He excused himself and went outside to call Ross.

"Get over it Pheeb's, she is British, just not the traditional sort, that you see on TV." Monica defended her niece, as Phoebe stropped. Monica was now determined to piece together her past and had looked at the old local newspaper in the library's computer earlier that day. To her surprise there were two articles one from 2003 and the other 2004. The first had been about how her adopted father had died, but what she found in the second one had shocked her.

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please review :)


	7. Chapter 7

hey :) sorry for how long it took to post this, had lots of home work and a bit if a social life. anyway thanks for the review :) although i would love to be able to put an 's' on that, so please please review, i'm not asking for much so please please review. sorry for the moan it's just a bit disheartening to be reading stories where they get like 10 reviews per chapter and i only get the one. that was still a bit of a moan so sorry about that. so lets get on with the story :)

disclaimer i don't own friends, the characters, brands, shops or anything else that is obviously not mine :)

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Chapter seven

"Dude what the hell is going on?" Chandler asked very confused.

"Need... your help..." Ross said with a rough voice.

Chandler sighed "Where are you?"

Ross was silent for a minute before answering "Some alley...near Nando's."

"Ross! What is going on?" Chandler shouted.

"Tell you when... your here." Ross groaned as if in pain. Chandler decided to ignore it, as it was probably nothing.

"No, you tell me now! Or I'm not going to come and pick you up" Chandler demanded.

"Ya know... I can just...ask Joey." He sounded almost drunk.

"Yer but he hasn't rented a car" Chandler smiled smugly to himself. "But fine, I'll come, but you have to tell me right away."

"Ok." Ross said and Chandler hung up the phone. Chandler ran inside and told them that Ross had an emergency. Of course they wanted to know what was going on but he didn't know himself so he just shrugged and got in the car.

He found Ross sat up against a wall in a daze; he had a black eye and a bleeding lip. As he approached, Ross slipped out of consciousness. "What the hell happened here?" he said to himself. He looked around but saw no one, he shook Ross gently to try and wake him. His eyes flickered open, "Ross, Ross where's Lucy?"

"Took her, hit me, help her. Please?" he mumbled.

"What?" Chandler was very confused now.

"Please?" Ross said in no more than a whisper.

"Where is she?" Chandler asked Ross just pointed in a vague direction to the street; he seemed even worse than when they were on the phone. Chandler took out his cell and called Joey. "Hey man, I need your help; basically I think Ross and Lucy were attacked. I found Ross and he's pretty out of it, I'm right at the end of the ally next to Gap, near Nando's. Could you come here and look after Ross, cos I've got to find Lucy? Be as quick as you can, please?" After a few words from Joey he hung up. "Ross, I'm going to find Lucy ok, Joey will be here in a few minutes, you'll be ok on your own right?" Ross just nodded his head. As Chandler ran back up the ally he looked down the next few, it seemed like an age before he found her. She was knocked out on the floor covered in cuts and soon to be bruises. He bent down slowly, cursing to himself. "Lucy? You awake?" It was a stupid question but he didn't know what else to say or do. If he walked out carrying an unconscious twelve year old it would look suspicious to say the least, let alone then walk down another one, to get Ross.

"Hey guys, that was Chandler, Ross and Lucy were like mugged or something, chandler can't get much out of him cos he's like in a daze. But he wants me to go and find him whilst he looks for Lucy. But I think we should all go. Maybe if Ben goes back to the hotel with the kids, then we all go and find Ross? " There were a few complaints from Ben and the other kids but in the end they all left to walk back to their hotel. As Ben walked out the door it suddenly occurred to him that his grandparents should be arriving about then, everyone had completely forgotten about them, as well as his own problems concerning the girl he had slept with, Paige, a few weeks ago.

Although he had not brought it up again, he had thought of nothing but it; he had to know. Once she had her first scan they could tell roughly when it was conceived, and then hopefully she would be able to work it out. She said it was about a week between them both; Ben being the later. If it was his there was no way she was having an abortion, he did not believe in such things; it would be his child and he would look after it all by himself if needs be. He had never really thought about it before but once he started thinking about it he knew he could never have his baby aborted. He understood why other people might do it but for him, it was out of the question.

Monica stared at Joey as he told them all he knew about the situation. She wished she had Chandlers hand to hold onto but he had left about twenty minutes before. As the cab neared the town centre she could not help but feel that this was the icing on the cake for poor Lucy. The article she had read had shocked her, how any mother could do it to her daughter was incomprehensible. She knew what it was like to have children that, although were not hers in blood, were hers in every other sense and it made no difference to how she treated them or loved them. How Lucy's adopted mother could have done such things she could not understand. Yes she had been depressed but her child should have come first.

First it had just been the drinking, but then she had started to leave her on her own all night, and sometimes it would be noon before she came back. Then she started to invite men over and sleep with them and then leave for work. Leaving a four year old Lucy alone with complete strangers. Some of the people who had worked with Lucy, once she was taken into care, said she had been abused by some of these men; their evidence was that she was petrified of any man that came near her. Although some just said it may have been for other reasons like seeing her father die in the car crash, but seeing as Lucy had never said anything, it made it near impossible to find out the truth. The final straw had been when her mother had tried to do some cooking while drunk, and set the house on fire after passing out. The fire fighters had rescued both of them but had realised after seeing how undernourished and dirty she was that this was not a safe environment for the five year old.

She had been taken in to care, but that was as far as the news report went and it was eating Monica up. If the child had not had such a traumatic start to life she would simply have asked her when she next saw her, but Monica had a feeling there was more drama than what she already new. It was going to take a long time to find out exactly what had happened. _Unless_, Monica thought, _Ross got custody or whatever and then they would have to know right?_ Once that thought had planted its self in Monica's brain it would not leave. As soon as they found Ross she would ask him.

Ross looked up and saw several figures running towards him, he protectively curled up covering his stomach, chest and face. "Ross? It's us, Mon, Joey, Phoebe and Mike." Monica said gently. Ross looked up slowly, and a small smile creped across his face.

"You found her?" he asked. But Joey shook his head. "Oh..." he whispered disappointedly "well have you called Chandler?" they all turned to Joey.

"What you looking at me for? Oh no, not yet, I should probably do that..." He dialled Chandler's number as the others tended to Ross. "Hey, you found her yet?"

"Yer she's just coming to... but she's really beat up."

"Do you know what happened yet? Cos I don't think even Ross is too sure" he said half listening to Ross and the others conversation.

"No... I don't know what to do cos its gonna look real creepy if I walk out of here with her all bleeding and stuff. "

"I think you might just have to walk out and keep your heads down and make sure the cop's don't see you. Cos I mean they'll suspect that you did it, and it could be a hard one to explain man."

"Yer I think you're right maybe if we go out one at a time or something? I don't know, I'll sort it out. How's, Ross. "

"Better than what you described, but I gotta go, we're getting him in the cab. See ya."

"Kay, bye." Chandler looked down to see Lucy's wide eyes open and staring at him.

"What's going on?" she said trying to hide her fear. She looked around, the memories slowly drifting back. "Ohhhh... I remember. Can we please leave, I want to go home?" chandler nodded and stood up offering her a hand up. However she got up by herself, which Chandler thought was weird; all he was doing was trying to help.

"Come on we've got to go get a cab back to yours" Chandler said softly.

"Taxi. If you are staying in England you have to call it a taxi." She said with a smile.

"Alright, but when you come to America you have to call it cab" he quipped.

"Nooo" she said slowly. "What language is it? English, so who speaks it correctly? English people, it's not called Americanish." She shot back with a grin.

Chandler sighed "Come on, are you going to be alright walking? It's not far from the road. " Lucy nodded and followed him back to the street, trying to be as nonchalant as possible.

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thanks for reading and please review :)


	8. Chapter 8

Ok hi so I realised moaning at you to review will not work so I have learnt my lesson, I would love for you to review more, so please do, I seriously don't care how long or short they are, please just take two seconds out of your day to review I mean you have already bothered to read it so... you know. Yer that was still a moan but I just really would like some more reviews. Anyway thank you to WOWcow and those who have review previously.

this is IMPORTANT I have put in here a bit about smoking, which may or may not be true, I did try to do some research but I couldn't find the answer, so just go with it and pretend it's true if it isn't, cos I don't know all that much about smoking, it's not really that important to the story but I just wanted to clear that up, thanks

Also this chapter focuses on Ben as a thought he needed a chapter of his own to explain how he feels so that why it's quite long. Think that that is all so please read and review :)

Oh and i don't own friends or any of the other stuff that you all know i don't own :)

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Chapter eight

After the short walk from the pub Ben got all the kids settled down and rented 'Tarzan' from the few films the hotel had on offer that were child friendly, and if he was going to be honest with himself 'Tarzan' was most definitely the best film ever. It had been the first film he had seen in the cinema he had been about five and had loved every minute, in fact for months after seeing it all his games had involved him being one of the characters. He cringed slightly at the thought of playing games that involved him running around like a monkey. He really hoped they didn't start doing that...

His grandparents had arrived an hour before they had gotten back, they were now in their room, hopefully sleeping, he refused to think that they might actually be doing what they had joked about doing. He looked at his cell phone, one missed call from Alex; he was the last person he wanted to talk to, being Paige's big brother. Ben knew that being in another country was just delaying the fight, although Ben was strong to say the least, he had no chance against the twenty year old, who had done boxing and karate since he was eight. There was a voicemail from the man he had once been close with, in fact it was thanks to Alex he was where he was, in freshman's year he had been bullied, but Alex took a liking to him and for some reason had helped to make him the most popular kid in school. They became good friends in the one year they went to school together, and Ben had joined boxing once he left so they could still hang out. Ben had quit once he started messing about with Paige, and now he knew he was going to get a beating.

He lifted the phone to his ear and immediately pulled it back as the shouting and swearing begun, there was no need to listen to the rest, so he simply deleted the message. He walked out of his, Jack and David's room; him having to sleep on a blow up mattress on the floor. Once in the room that was conjoined with their room he sat down on one of the seats that had been moved across from one of the other rooms they were using. His favourite song in the whole film was just about to start, 'Trashin the camp'. It was at the part where they started breaking all the things at the human's camp, just before the tune started. He remembered rocking out to it when he was younger, he sighed realising that that was exactly what they were all going to do.

They all started singing along 'shooby doop dobby dop dobby doop dobby dah dah doo dap, shooby doop dobby dop dobby doop dobby dah dah dobby op' and before he knew it the three youngest, shortly joined by the twins, were jumping on the bed, throwing things about.

"Dam it!" he said sighed under his breath "guy's, stop, sit down!" he raised his voice. Thankfully the song was fairly short and they sat down once again absorbed in the movie, leaving him to clean up the mess. There was knock on the door whilst he was cleaning up the room "One sec!" he shouted, wondering if it was his grandparents, his dad/Rachel or any of his dads friends. He tried the best he could in case it was Monica or his grandmother for that matter; he didn't want to give either of them a panic attack. He ran over to the other side of the room to get to the door, he opened it to see his dad and the others, including Lucy, both her and his father looked like they had been in a fight or attacked. "What? What happened?" he stumbled across his words out of shock.

"We had a... an incident, but we need to clean her up before she goes back, otherwise we will all be in big trouble, especially Ross." Monica said. Ben nodded and ushered the kids into the other room.

"But I want to see what happens, does Tarzan get on the ship or not?" Daisy whined.

"Really? You've never seen it before?" he said in shock. "Shame on you Mike and Phoebe, shame on you!" He said half joking "you can watch the end later." He turned to Joey "Dude, what happened?"

"Not too sure, Ross is ok now but Lucy is just getting worse, I mean look at her, now she's shaking. She's not said anything since she got in the cab; the weird thing is that Chandler said she seemed fine when they were walking to it. Ross said that they were from her school and that they hated her, she didn't say why though... "

"How old were they, I mean they both look terrible?"

"Ross said they ranged from like fourteen to about eighteen. The ones that beat him up were about your age, bit older..." Joey said slowly. Ben nodded, and sat down on the bed, elbows on his knees and head in his hands. The stress of the past few days getting to him. He looked up and saw everyone tending round Lucy, G*d he wished they would help him with his problem but nooo; they were all too busy helping Lucy. He wished he could be more sympathetic, but truth be told he had no idea who she was, he had managed the past twelve years of his life without knowing her and he could have happily gone the rest of his life without knowing her. He wanted to hit something or someone, he had no idea why he was so angry, but he knew he had no right to focus it on his newly found sister.

"I'm going to go for a walk" he said getting up and grabbing his phone. They all glanced at him and said their brief 'goodbye's and 'see you later's. They were all too focused on Lucy to care about how he felt, as he ran down the hotel corridor he bumped into his grandparents.

"Hello" Judy said with a stiff voice. "Where are you going in such a rush?"

"Dunno... just need some air...might see if there is anything interesting in the area" Ben replied, although he knew exactly what he was going to do. He was just going to buy some cigarettes and go smoke in a park, and then he would blast his music in his ears to forget the world while running, which would be painful as he would have just smoked half a packet of cigarettes. After that he would do some walking and actually do some thinking about everything and then he would go find a gym and do some boxing with more ear blasting music. As he went outside his phone rang, he pulled it out of his pocket and answered it before looking t the caller ID.

"Hi, it's me, Paige, bought one of those pregnancy tests that... also date it and well... I umm kinda figured out who the dad is... and well..." she stopped talking and burst into tears.

"Paige? Paige? Are you ok? Honey... its ok, am... am I the dad?" he asked unsure why she was crying, but he guessed it was to do with all the hormones.

"It's not ok, of course it's not ok I'm eighteen in five weeks and I'm four weeks pregnant! And they... they kicked me out. My own family, kicked me out, I have no where to stay... all my friends think I'm a slutty whore. But you know what; I bet half of them have slept with you, hell you've slept with over half the girls at school. It's just because I was the unlucky one to get pregnant. And then they're all like, have an abortion, before you ruin your life... but I can't do that, how could I do that to our baby..." She sobbed.

""What? So it is mine, huh..." Ben didn't know what to think, all he knew was that his life was going to change drastically.

"Yer...but I mean you don't have to be involved, but it would be nice if you were..."

"I'm not going to let you do this alone... but I do think we need to talk about this all, in person when I get back, about us... and... well everything. Where are you staying to night?" He asked suddenly worried about their unborn baby.

"A motel." She said in a small voice.

"Why don't you go to my dad's, no one is there at the moment, we're all in London. There's a spare key in the garden..." he offered without thinking.

"No I can't do that and anyway I'll be fine in the motel, it's cheap and I've been saving up for college, but it looks like that's not going to happen, so now it appears I have a lot of savings that I can spend." She said trying to sound positive but he could hear the disappointment in her voice. At that point he felt even worse; he had completely ruined her chances of further education, this smart young girl was going to be stuck for the rest of her life, looking after a child, just because she was down because her and her boyfriend had broken up and he happened to find her and they both ended up getting hammered and woke up together at her house. Thankfully her parents had been out of town; that would have been a tricky one to explain. Sometimes he wondered if they had been there if they would have still slept together but he knew that they were past the point of knowing what was up and what was down by the time they got to hers.

"Hey? Ben?" a young female voice came from behind him. Ben spun around to find a teenage girl about the same age as him staring at him with a familiar smile. It took a few seconds for it to click, but there staring back at him was his ex-girlfriend, Becky Langford, she had been his last proper girlfriend. He hurried a goodbye down the phone unsure of what would happen once they started talking.

"Wow, Becky, you look so different, what's it been; one and a half years? I wouldn't have thought it was possible to look so different..." Ben greeted her with a hug. He hadn't seen her since she moved to England.

"Something like that. And I'm going to take that as a compliment." She smiled back. At the time when they were going out he would have sworn he loved her, now all those feelings were coming back. Boy, life would just not give him a break right now. "Hey, I would love to catch up but I have something I need to do" _a lot of smoking to do_ he thought to himself; "maybe tomorrow, if you're free that is? There's a cafe down the road, although you probably already know that since you live here and all" he smiled. She nodded and they exchanged phone numbers, before going their separate ways.

He took a long drag of his cigarette, wishing he had not started when he was fifteen, but no, he had to follow the crowd and start this habit that made his parents constantly moan and drive him crazy. He knew it wasn't good for him but it was too hard to quit and well, he just was a weak person. He normally only smoked when he was stressed but when he did smoke, it was a lot at one time. He ended up having the whole pack; so much for only having half; but he was very stressed and confused so he was allowed; or that's what he told himself. He set off round the park, which he had found whilst aimlessly wondering as he smoked, his jog quickly turned into a sprint, and as much as he loved running he could feel his lungs cursing him for having the entire pack. His sprint lasted about ten minuets before he finally slowed back to a jog. He could normally go way over half an hour doing a run, not quite a sprint but a lot more that a jog. After a quarter of an hour jogging he collapsed by a tree, irritated about how short a time he had lasted, although he knew it was his own fault. The good thing was that his lungs were now fuming and he thought he was going to die, which was exactly the feeling he had been going for. He turned off his music that had been destroying his ears for almost a half hour, and finally let the sounds of the real world reach his ears. After a few minutes sat by the tree enjoying the birds and distant sound of a busy road he got up and started the last lap of the park, walking.

He walked about pondering about the root of his problems; it started with school, the thing was that he was incredibly smart, but he never worked hard; he would only put in the minimal effort, unless there was an exam, in which case he would always get A's. But because he was a straight A student the teachers were always on his case to work as hard as he could, and if he worked hard he would lose everything he had worked for when it came to the social ladder. So instead of listening and making good notes he and his friends stayed at the back of the class and joked and chatted. This whole thing made the teachers very frustrated and he ended up with loads of detentions and because he then got angry at the teachers shouting at him he had even received a few suspensions to his parent's dismay. His dad especially hated that he was such a slacker, he had spent a lot of money on sending him to a private elementary and middle school, and now in his father's eyes he was wasting all that money. Then there was the baby, he was unsure of exactly what he felt about being a dad but he knew it was only going to cause more problems at home, which would be reflected at school, which would lead to more trouble at home so really it was an endless cycle.

So in conclusion to his last lap around the park his life was about to get a lot worse, and with that thought he set off back to the hotel remembering that it had a small gym.

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ahh i just love Tarzan, and most old Disney movies, not so much the new one's they're good but nothing can beat the lion king ...  
Anyway... thanks for reading and please review, it would be much appreciated :)


	9. Chapter 9

Hello, thank you for the review, but please, please, please could i have some more review as i desperately want to make that 'review**s**' please? it would make me really really happy :)

so this is another long chapter as i wanted every character (except the kids, it's not their turn yet) to have a bit on them, i know Joey does not have a bit in this for himself but it will come soon :)

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Chapter nine

Lucy looked up into her brother's eyes; pure shock was the only way to describe what was portrayed on his face. She had no idea she looked so bad, all she wanted was to go to bed. It suddenly occurred to her that she had started shaking, and before long she was bawling her eyes out, although the day had been traumatic, she had seen far worse and still held it together so she was unsure why she was crying. In the end she came to the conclusion that it was because everyone was fussing over her; when people draw attention to something it tends to make you more upset than if they had just left you alone, and now that she was shaking and crying, everyone except Ben, who had seemingly disappeared, was crowding round her.

"Ok guy's, I think we're making it worse so why don't just Ross and one other looked after her?" Chandler suggested realising she was just shacking more the more they fussed. The others agreed and everyone except Ross and Monica went across to the other room were the kids had transferred the 'Tarzan' DVD and were once again engrossed. Joey too jumped on the bed and started watching the end of the film, and then sang along to the next song. Mike walked up to Chandler and whispered something in his ear and they walked out to go into Chandler and Monica's room causing Phoebe and Rachel to share a confused glance.

"What happened, precisely?" Mike asked worried about the twelve year old.

"I don't know exactly, she just said they beat her up, all we know is that they were from school..."

Mike gave him a hard stare before speaking. "Why didn't she want any of the guy's to touch her? Me and Joey both tried to help her and she just flinched and looked away, it was obvious we were just trying to help."

"What? You think I did something? Mike she was like that before, I tried to help her up earlier, but she refused to take my hand! Something obviously happened to her previously, or maybe it's just that we don't know her very well. This kid has had a hard life, I don't know what's happened to her but I know it been no picnic. I can't believe you thought I did something!" Chandler shouted horrified that his friend thought he had hurt her in any way. He walked out of the room, and down the hall deciding to look for Ben instead of going back across the hall.

Mike now knew he had been out of line with what he had said, realising that Chandler would never do anything to hurt anyone, all he wanted to do was check, as he thought it was weird the way she acted around them. But he realised he had nothing to worry about except that he had now probably ruined his friendship with Chandler. The only benefit to that was not having to spend time with Monica, after the whole wedding rehearsal fiasco; he had never been quite comfortable around her. She was too obsessive and controlling for his liking. But he had really grown to like Chandler, his sarcastic wit and general good nature, and for some reason being with Monica seemed to make him really happy. Phoebe, he knew would not be happy with the argument between the two men as she loved the four of them all going out together, and he was unsure why they went out with them more than Ross and Rachel.

As Chandler walked, no, stormed down the hall, he wondered if the others had thought similarly to Mike; that thought sickened him, they were his friends surely they wouldn't think that... but Mike was his friend, they had been friends for almost seven years, and good friends for six, but he still didn't trust him. He looked around to find that he had reached a dead end with the gym and the swimming pool in front of him, he decided that the gym was as good a place as any to find Ben and if not he could just hide there for a bit. So he opened the door and was laughed at by the muscular man behind the desk when asking where the boxing stuff was. "I'm looking for my nephew..." he justified himself.

"Ohhhh... I knew something didn't add up there" he smirked. Chandler gave him a hard irritated stare before walking off in the direction the man had pointed to. When he found Ben he was covered in sweat but still punching the punch bag as if his life depended on it. He had to admire the kid for his endurance, even before he had started going to the boxing club he had still gone to the gym each night with Ross, who mostly just ran on the treadmill.

"Hey Ben." He said after a few seconds. Ben span round quickly in a defensive poses ready to strike if needed. Chandler instinctively jumped back and squealed like a girl.

"Sorry I scared you... but you scared did me first." Ben apologised.

"What a great apology" Chandler said sarcastically "you know, I think the more you blame someone else, the better really"

"Oh well in that case it's not my fault, it's yours, Alex's, Paige's parents, kinda Paige, Becky, Mom 1, Mom 2, Dad, England and well, the school, but that's a whole different issue. Cos if it were not for all of them I would not have come here and then you would not have said 'hey Ben' and I would not have spun round and scared you." Ben replied.

"Who and umm what...?"

"Alex is Paige's brother, Paige's parents are... well Paige's parents, Paige is the girl I... um... knocked up" he said trailing off at the end, embarrassed. "Becky is the girl I dated for like..." He paused to think about it for a bit. "6 months, then she moved to England so we had to break up, and well I blame England cos well this is where I was when it all got so much more complicated." Ben said as quickly as he could while trying to put things delicately. Chandler just nodded his head slowly.

"Wanna talk about it?" he said after a while, kind of hoping that Ben would say no so that he could avoid an awkward conversation and feeling that it should be between Ben and one of his parents, however the more gossipy side of his brain wanted to talk about it so he knew what was actually going on with his nephew.

"I don't know... I did a lot of thinking this afternoon and, please don't tell Dad or either of my Moms about well..."

"The baby or the smoking?" Chandler asked having had the smell hit him as soon as he walked in.

"Well for Dad the smoking and for my Moms both... please?" Ben said sincerely.

Chandler nodded before opening and closing his mouth several times. "Well... if you want to talk about it I'm here for you buddy. Well... I'm going to go now so... do you want to come to or shall I just go?"

"Would you mind waiting, I'll only be a few minutes..." Ben asked, Chandler nodded and sat down on one of the benches while Ben showed. After a few minutes he poked his wet head round the corner to face Chandler. "Chan... could you please get me some fresh clothes from upstairs... I didn't think this through, did I?" he laughed at himself for not having clothes to change into.

"Sure... what would you have done if I weren't here?" he laughed.

"I'd of had to change back into the ones I wore earlier, I guess" he said as he scrunched up his face in disgust and shuddered, one of his biggest hates was to be clean but have to wear dirty clothes; he guessed it was hereditary as like Monica he was a bit to obsessed with cleanliness, especially for a guy.

Back in their hotel room Lucy was still recovering; although she looked better, it was obvious she had been attacked. She sat on the double bed, still shaking; she held the duvet close to her chest and rocked back and forward, finally releasing everything she had been holding in since she left her last foster family and more. All the rejection she had felt when she had to leave was bubbling up, all the bullying she had suffered was all coming back to her, stuff that she had held in even when in a loving environment was coming to the surface. The tears were streaming down her face, Monica and Ross sat either side of her trying to comfort her. It was all coming out at once, the last two years of pain and more, all exploding out like a volcano finally erupting after years of pressure building up within. The truth was that if they had not been so nice to her, if they hadn't cared and been her real family, then she would have bottled it up along with the rest, stuffed it into the already over flowing bucket of pain, rejection and self doubt.

Monica realised after the first ten minutes of crying that this was more than just about today, it had been halfway through the cab journey back that she started crying, just a little bit at first, but as the journey came to a close her sobbing became louder and lower, it eased off as they entered the hotel, but once again it started as they approached Ross and Rachel's and after that it just got worse and worse. And now Monica was just waiting for the tears to run out, but they just kept on going, so she just kept rubbing her back. Rachel stood awkwardly at the edge of the room keeping an eye on both conjoining rooms, Phoebe and Cougar had fallen asleep at the end of the film and the others had since fallen asleep while channel hopping. Joey had turned the TV off and was now sat on the floor playing with some string he was using to play cat's cradle, but was evidently failing.

"Psst, do you think it's alright if I leave, I'm really tired?" Joey asked Rachel, she nodded and he quietly got up and left. A few seconds later Chandler walked in, looked at the bed, smiled, went to the closet, grabbed some of Ben's clothes and walked out again. Rachel ran out after him.

"Chandler what was that about?"

"Oh I went to find Ben, he was in the gym, but had no fresh clothes to change into, so I came and got some." He explained.

"Okay" she said slowly. "What happened earlier, between you and Mike? I haven't seen him since."

"I haven't seen him since either..." Chandler mused, avoiding the question. This just ended up with him having Rachel give him a hard stare. "He thought that I had something to do with... her not trusting men. But Rach I swear I would never do anything... you know that right?" Chandler said terrified that she too would share the belief.

"Chandler how... why, wha-... Chandler I know you would never do anything, I can't believe Mike said that..." Chandler sighed in relief as Rachel assured him that she did not have that worry and would never suspect Chandler to have hurt anyone.

Phoebe woke up to find herself surrounded by children; strategically she managed to remove herself from the entanglement of sleeping bodies without waking any of them. She looked around to find an exhausted Rachel slumped on a dining chair asleep in a very uncomfortable position. Monica too had fallen asleep, the jet lag catching up with them, Ross was sat on the bed to talking quietly to his daughter who had managed to compose herself, after goodness know how long. It only occurred to Phoebe now that she had not seen Mike or Chandler since they had left the room several hours earlier. "I'm just going to go across the hall see if Mike's there..." Phoebe whispered, Ross nodded and said that he would probably be taking Lucy back when she came back in, before continuing to console his daughter.

Mike was lying on the bed looking very sorry for himself, "Mike? You ok?"

"I think I've done something really stupid..." Mike said slowly. "And I'm really sorry." Phoebe just looked at him expectantly and then slowly sat down.


	10. Chapter 10

well i want to start with a big thank you to those who reviewed, 3 is a big improvement on 1 :) please keep it up, it really made my day.  
i owe you an apology for not warning you about me going on holiday, and then not being able to update until now, so sorry.

just wanted to say that Alex (Joey's on of girlfriend) is mentioned in this and just to tell you that basically they got together after the Joey show and i think that's all you need to know but if you get confused just pm me :)

disclaimer i don't own friends or Alex from the 'Joey' show, or brand and place's etc.

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Chapter 10

"Mike what did you do?" Phoebe asked worried. Mike explained the conversation he had had with Chandler to Phoebe, she sighed at the end. "You need to go apologise Mike; I can't believe that you did that..."

"I know, I just wanted to be sure, it all just seemed suspicious, but I should have known that Chandler would never do a thing to hurt anyone." Mike groaned, frustrated with himself. "Do you know where he is?" Phoebe shook her head. "Ok, I'm going to go find him. I'm sorry Pheeb's"

"I'm not the one you need to apologies to." She said firmly but there was a loving tone hidden within. Mike nodded his head and gave her a peck on the cheek before leaving.

As Chandler ran back into the Gym changing rooms, Ben popped his head around the door, scaring Chandler for a second time that day. Swearing aloud Chandler jumped back "Dude you have got to stop doing that." Chandler gasped.

"Sorry, is my face really that scary?" Ben said mockingly, knowing full well that, and as vain as it sounded, he was very attractive. He was the kind of guy you pass on the street and you either do a double take and see in your dreams for the next week or you stare at with your mouth wide open and talk about, for the rest of the week. His thick dirty blond hair, strong jaw line and perfect features along with just the right amount of muscle were hard to say no to. Ben thanked him for the clothes and quickly hopped back into the changing room to change.

He came out wearing skinny jeans from Abercrombie and Fitch with the rim of his Calvin Klein boxers showing and a red and white chequered shirt from Hollister. His shoes were a black pair of converses with the laces loosely tucked inside, so only the crisscross on top of the tongue was visible. There was no doubt that almost all his wages from working at the corner shop part time were spent on clothes and with Rachel as his step mom he got discounts from Calvin Klein, his grandparents, all three pairs were all in an unspoken competition to see who could give him the most money each time they saw him, which helped a lot. This left him with just enough money to put into a bank account, and save up for college, which he was not all that bothered about but his dad was adamant he should go.

. . . . .

Ross stood up looking at the time and swore under his breath, seeing how late it was "Ok we need to get you home..." Lucy nodded and wiped the tears from her eyes that were still slowly flowing. She had never cried so much in her life, but apart from the headache, her sore eyes and raw skin under her eyes where the tears had hit; she felt a lot better. As she stood up Ross passed her some more tissues that were shortly added to the growing pile in the bin. Everyone else had left a while ago to go to the cafe down the road.

After dropping Lucy back to the children's home Ross joined the others at the cafe, Phoebe was there but not Mike; Ben and Chandler were also missing, but apart from those three everyone else was there including the children who were sat on parents laps eating ice creams. Ross sat down in the arm chair and ordered a coffee. "So much for your father-daughter day hey man?" Joey said sympathetically. "Couldn't have been much worse, but at least you got a good story to tell... did the people at the Home say anything?" Joey asked before having a sip of his hot chocolate and getting a whipped cream moustache.

"Not really, they just kind of gave her a funny look, and she said she ran into some people from school and that obviously, like made sense to them cos they seemed to dismiss it after that. Which to be honest is really concerning as that would imply that it happens a lot and... Well I don't... that...that really upsets me, I mean she's been through so much and well it's not fair." Ross said getting visibly upset.

"Did she talk to you about what happened?" Monica said excitedly.

"She didn't remember the fight."

"No, I mean before we got in touch, like her whole life..." Monica corrected.

"Oh... a little bit; Monica, might I add that you are a little too excited." Ross said a little bemused by his sister's interest in her niece's horrible childhood.

"Sorry it's just that I... umm... did a little research and I found some interesting information about why she was taken into care. And I want to know more; you need to know what you're dealing with before you take her home."

"What_ did_ you find out?" Phoebe asked. Monica filled them in about the car crash, Lucy's adopted mothers depression, the trail of men that had been coming in and out of the house for the year after her adopted father's death, she also told them about the abuse she may or may not have suffered from them. She went on to tell them about the house fire and the state in which she was found in. "Wow, that's like as bad or worse, if you consider her age, than all my past put together and it happened in the space of a year! And we don't even know the whole story yet" Phoebe exclaimed.

"Is that why she was so sad Mommy?" Cougar asked with a slight lisp.

"Yes, along with other things honey" she said before kissing him on the head.

"Where is Daddy?" both Cougar and Daisy said in unison.

"I don't know, but please go and play, I'm talking, ok?" Phoebe said getting impatient, not thinking about the fact that they were in a cafe. The children all started running about as if on cue. "Oh no..." Phoebe said in her trade mark way "that's not what I meant!" she shouted as she tried to round up the children with Rachel and Monica.

"Oh my G*d, oh my G*d!" a young woman shrieked running over, knocking an old lady over as she scrambled over to the chairs that they were sitting at. "Joey Tribbiani! In England in...in the coffee shop, in the same room as me!" Joey sighed before turning around with a fake smile plastered on his face.

"Hey!" he said overly enthusiastic, but it was clear to anyone who knew him that all the excitement of meeting the fan was fake. But when he looked up at her his expression changed, "Wow, you're actually hot." He said with a genuine smile. Ross sighed as Joey excused himself and went to another table with the excited fan.

"So much for Alex..." Ross said to no one in particular, it was a shame really, he liked her and they were very much in love, but they were both at different stages in their lives and it never seemed to be the right time for them. From the start they had both said that work came first, and after a year Alex was offered a huge promotion, but she would have to move from LA to Brookline in New York. It was ironic really, Joey had moved to LA for his career, met a beautiful woman, whom he had a serious relationship with, and now she was moving to New York, fairly near where he had lived, for her career. She wanted to stay, but Joey loved her to much to stop her from going. A year later he moved back, stable enough to rely on the occasional movie. Again they dated for almost a year but Alex had to move closer to her parents after her father had a heart attack, he survived fortunately.

Since then when their paths crossed, be it filming a movie, trip for work, holiday or some other short term reason, they spent every second together, but when they had to split it killed them both. Joey would stay in his room for days if not weeks, stuck in the first phase of a break up, only for Ross and Chandler came along for phase two, and sneak out of their houses and join him at the strip club and get wasted. Phase two was the only good thing about his and Alex's breakup.

As the girls came back with the children Chandler and Ben poked there head round the door. "Hey!" Phoebe exclaimed "Please tell me you talked to Mike?" Phoebe said with a tone of desperation.

"Not since Lucy got back..." Chandler replied stiffly.

Phoebe leaned her head back letting out a deep breath, hitting her head on the back of her chair. "Well you _need_ to. _He_ needs to talk to _you_." she said urgently.

"Why, got some other false accusations to make or will he just openly insult me this time?" Chandler almost shouted with apparent anger.

"No, he wants to apologises, he is really sorry Chandler." Phoebe said in a hushed voice, realising everyone in the cafe was now staring, after Chandler's outburst.

"Wha- what happened?" Monica asked, adamant to be filled in.

Chandler looked around to see everyone in the small cafe leaning in to hear the American's conversation. "Trying to have a private conversation here people! Sheeshh! Well what are you still looking at, get back to your coffee!" This just made people even more curious; although some did turn away most leaned in closer. "I need a cigarette, Ben you coming?" he said not wanting to deal with the situation. Ben stared at him, eyes wide as if to say 'shut up!' but too late, his secret was out.

"Chandler he wants to apologise." Phoebe said at the same time as Chandler had asked Ben to come have a cigarette with him. Monica's

"What... what did you say Chandler?" Ross said hoping he had miss heard.

"I... well me and Ben have just been bonding you know and I thought he would like to come and... hang out with me?" Chandler lied, _not up to my usually standard_ Chandler though grimly knowing Ross would see right through it.

Ross was fuming now. "Ben you smoke! Since when, and Chandler, you knew about this!"

"Chandler please don't start again, wait... please tell me you haven't started again already?"

Chandler looked guilty "Chandler!" Monica shrieked, he had promised not to smoke now that they had the twins; she had though he had kept to it. But now she thought about it the clues had been just inches away. It was then that everyone started shouting, Monica and Phoebe at Chandler and Ross at Ben, Ben in return shouted at both Ross and Chandler, which then made chandler shout at Ben in return trying to defended himself, Rachel shouted at them to all be quiet and the kids ran amuck enjoying the energy in the air. Joey had left the eager fan, who sat patiently at the table awaiting his return, and was now trying to round up the kids and help Rachel stop the argument. To make matters worse it was now that Mike entered the cafe. For a split second the shouting stopped, Mike glanced about at all of them before legging it out the door shortly followed by Chandler, who was followed by Monica and Phoebe. Ben then took this as his exit and sprinted out the door and back to the park he had gone to earlier. Ross sighed before kissing Rachel on the cheek and running after his son.

"Well... that was interesting..." Rachel said slowly running her hand through her hair.

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please, please comment it honestly doesn't take 5 seconds :)  
thanks for reading :)


	11. Chapter 11

hello, this is a quite long one and I'm afraid it's not all that exciting but its necessary :)  
please review and thank you for the reviews that i have already received

disclaimer - i don't own anything or anyone :)

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Chapter 11

Lucy walked up the stairs and into her bedroom, dumping her shopping bag in the process. To her relief it was empty and she flopped onto her bed which happened to be the one closest to the door. The room was small and only just big enough to fit the two single beds, a bed side table that was placed between the two beds with a lap, a small clock/CD player and Lucy's book on it, it had two draws as well which held the girls bits and bobs. Next to the door was the wardrobe that the girls shared, Lucy's section was notable smaller than Sophie's. It was the only bedroom in the building that did not have anything on the floor; instead they, well actually Lucy, neatly stored anything that would not fit in their draw on a shelf that was above the bedside table and a bit of each of their beds. It also helped that neither of them had many toys, Lucy had a couple of cuddle toys from the various families she had had that at one point had made her feel vaguely happy and Sophie had decided she was too old for the toys she had been given or bought on various occasions and had sold them on to the gullible young kids at the primary school down the road, to buy makeup. On the shelf was mainly Lucy's books and little knick knacks they had collected over the years.

The room was dark as the curtains were closed and Lucy had not bothered to turn the light on. She was just starting to relax and get over the ordeal of the day when Adam ran in screaming shortly followed by a less hyper Hashim; Hashim was a very quiet and shy six year old who weirdly made friends with Adam who was like a lightning bolt with no end. Hashim was closely followed by his shadow of a sister, Lana, who Lucy was sure had never said a word in her presence. She was an easily forgotten person but for some reason even though her brother was shy and never said more than necessary unless he was with Adam, there was something about him that you could not forget, for instance he had been the first new kid, when she came back to stay more permanently two years ago, that she learnt the name of. Since then there had been numerous kids come and go, each had their own individual story. But mostly Lucy kept to herself; reading countless novels to escape everything, burying herself in someone else's problems instead of facing her own. Academia was the place where she excelled; she was bullied a lot but she figured she would be bullied anyway so what difference did it make, and sometimes her intelligence helped her out, often if it was just verbal bulling she would find a really clever comeback and then they'd just scoff and walk off.

"What do you want?" Lucy asked wanting them to leave.

"Your dog...is stuck... under... the fence" Adam said out of breath after running up two sets of stairs.

Lucy shot up off the bed "What?!"

"He saw a cat in the garden and it went over the fwence, he tried to climb the fwence but he couldn't so he started diggin' at the..." he struggled to find the right word "...cwumbuwy ground in fwont of the fwence and, and he could see the cat fwough the whole and twied to cwol under, and now he is stuck and the kids keep pulln' his tail" Adam said quickly, it was amazing how few breaths it took him so say it all.

Lucy jumped of the bed and grabbed her hoodie and pulled it over her head whilst running down the stairs and thereby bumping into the wall where the stairs turned at a right angle, as her eyes were covered by the hoodie. She heard the children behind her laugh as she then followed the wall hitting by slipping on the next step and landing on her bum and then continued to bounce down the set of stairs. As she turned to go down the second set of stairs she slipped on a toy and went down the on her back. Once at the bottom she sat up in some pain completely baffled as to how slipping on a toy dog led her to land on her back. "Well... that hurt..." she slowly stood up, completely forgetting about her dog being stuck under the fence.

"Luc?" Adam said trying to cover his giggling

"Yer...?" she asked cocking her head to the side with a questioning look.

"Your dog?" Hashim prompted.

After a moment "Oh yer!" she said standing up and racing to the garden, only to realise that they had been messing with her. It was obvious now, Hashim was a genius, he had strategically place the toy on the stairs so she would slip onto her back, they had thought of something that would require her to go outside so she would grab her hoodie and it had to be urgent so that she would bang into the wall where the stairs turned. It also had to be an easily viewed place, for the maximum embarrassment, which was why they had chosen the stairs in the first place and then the garden could be seen from the landing window so they could see her face when she figured it out. Ooh she was going to kill them. She turned around to see all the kids staring at her through the window.

At that point one of the kids released the dog from inside the building and it sprinted up to her knocking her over. This was just one of the many well thought out pranks that went on in the Home when certain kids had too much free time. The black lab licked her face and bounced about her as she sat on the grass not bothering to stand up.

As she sat there with the dog licking her to death she assessed her new family. Her dad seemed nice enough but she didn't know how comfortable she would be if she did go back to America with them, he seemed trustworthy though, and easy to open up to, which had not been her plan but they had all flown out from America she needed to make an effort, right? But he was the first person she had ever opened up to in the slightest excluding her dog Sammy. But they were family, it was her _real_ father, she wanted to tell him, it was a weird feeling but that's what it was, it just felt right telling him a bit, not much, but it was a start.

Monica seemed really sweet but a bit neurotic; she had been really nice when she started crying, which had been embarrassing. The last time she had cried was a good few years ago, the whole group had just brought it out of her and once she started she couldn't stop. She had never felt so wanted, they had all spent money to come and see her, her dad could have just not bothered to contact her but he had, he had not just flown out by himself but brought his friends and family. And then offered that if she wanted to, once they had gotten to know her and she them, that she could go to live with them, like a proper family. It was all too much to cope with and she started crying once again. To avoid the embarrassment she turned away from the house so no one could see, as there were still a few staring out the window.

The other friends and family members she had not spoken to so much and hadn't gotten to know them all that well, but she liked that Chandler had realised that she needed space once in the hotel room and he had been nice when he first found her after the attack, and he seemed funny. But today she had not seen him all that much as he and the blonde's husband had disappeared and so had her older brother at some point. It was kind of like they were just avoiding her and finding the quickest escape possible, the more she thought about it the more she remembered people slipping in and out of the room.

Hopefully things would get easier and she would get to know them better as the week and a bit progressed, as the first time she met them all had been short and awkward, and today she had been too busy having a mini breakdown and ruining her day with Ross. Hopefully tomorrow would go better, that was as long as she didn't break down in tears again.

After about half an hour outside Sophie came and brought her in. "What are you doing? It's freezing." Sophie got no response so she draped a blanket round her and put the kettle on and prepared a hot chocolate. "So... how'd your day go?" Sophie asked trying to hide how worried she was about her roommate. Out of all the children living at the Home Lucy had been through the most and Sophie knew it was getting to be too much for her, and the worst thing was that she knew a lot more had happen to her than what she had been told.

After a minute Lucy looked up and received the hot chocolate Sophie had made. "Thanks, not just for the drink but bringing me in and the blanket... I guess I owe you an explanation..."

"Don't tell me if you don't want to..."

"No, I want to tell you, I need to tell someone, just not here, can we go to our room?" Sophie nodded and the two girls walked up the stairs in silence. That was one thing Sophie loved about Lucy, she never filled conversation with idle chat, she only talked about the real stuff. Half way up the stairs Lucy turned around and walked back down. Sophie gave her a questioning glance before running to grab her and Lucy a jacket feeling that this would end with them going to the park to walk the dog. On her way back down the stairs she saw about eight pairs of eyes peering out behind doors.

After a good ten minutes walking in silence they reached the park. Lucy explained as best as she could all that she remembered of the day, while Sophie listened silently. "What are you going to do?" Lucy just shrugged in response knowing that nothing she did would change anything.

After a few minutes silent's they came to the big field in the middle of the park, Lucy unclipped Sammy's lead before opening her mouth to talk "It might be ok in a few weeks time you know, we talked about me going back over to America with them when they go, there is some paper work and court stuff to sort out I think... and schools but I might be able to go back with them, and you know I think I want to... it'll be a fresh start ya know and I'll be with my fami-" Lucy stopped as she saw what appeared to be her brother sprint out of one of the paths that lead to the field.

"Ain't that your brother?" Sophie said admiring the view.

"Yer... and stop drawling, it's my brother not Robert Paterson!"

"Your brother is fit and I gotta tell you, R-Patz is not."

"R-Patz? Really, did you just say that? And I don't have time to get into a discussion on whether _Robert Paterson _is fit or not." She said with emphasise on "Robert Paterson" before running down the path her brother had gone down.

"Lucy!" Sophie shouted after her and then sprinted after the dog who had run off up the path Ben had come from. She turned down the path be for having a head on collision.

"Mr Geller?"

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please review


	12. Chapter 12

hello and welcome to chapter 12

thank you for the reviews and please continue to how your support by reviewing, favourite-ing and following.

this is a little late as i had a busy weekend going shopping, doing voluntary work, having a sleepover then in the morning I had a twilight marathon with some friends and then we went to see braking dawn part 2 so as you can see I had no time to upload :)

disclaimer - i don't own anything :)

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Chapter 12

"Mr Geller?" a young blonde girl asked as Ross ran into her trying to catch up with his son. Ross looked down at the girl with a questioning look on his face, trying to place the child who looked about Lucy's age, maybe a bit younger. "I'm Lucy's roommate, Sophie... have you seen her dog? He ran up here. Oh! And Ben ran down...there" She pointed to a path "Lucy ran after him, not sure why, think it was more of an impulse thing than anything. But yer, have you seen the dog?"

"Umm... wha- ... umm... well... something... ran past me, might have been your, I mean, er Lucy's dog." Ross said taking forever to get his words out; whenever he was stressed he seemed to take even longer to get his sentences across.

"Ok thanks when I find him I'll probably catch you guy's up." She said as she started to run off.

"Ben?" Lucy called out. Ben turned his head abruptly but kept on running at the unfamiliar voice. After a few seconds he realised who it was and grinded to a halt.

"What are you doing here?"

"I was walking Sammy with Sophie."

"Walking who with who?"

"Well someone didn't listen to anything yesterday"

"Well I was kinda preoccupied; you know becoming a father, telling my family and all that."

"Your fault... anyway Sammy's my dog and Sophie's my roommate." Lucy said bluntly.

"Oh... did you see my dad?"

"Nope" she said popping the 'p'. "and it's _our_ dad" she said softly.

"Oh yer, sorry."

"so we've covered me, why are _you_ here?"

He lit up a cigarette before answering "Dad found out I smoke" he said pointing to his lit cigarette "and well that and me becoming a dad and well probably the little things like me not doing well at school have made him very, very mad." He said with a smile.

"And... you're happy why?"

"Not really sure, just... feels like... I've had so much pressure on me lately to do well at school and be well behaved and now it feels... like he is so disappointed with me, that, it's like nothing I do will matter so if I want I can still keep on being me and... well he won't care. All the pleasure is gone...I know you don't get it but... well I do and it make sense to me. "

"You know I think I understand..."she grabbed his lit cigarette carefully and stubbed it out.

"Hey! I paid for that!"

"Too bad, smoking kills and you know it, and you'll be no use to your little baby if you're dead"

"I'm not going to die" he scoffed as he pulled out another cigarette and prepared to light it. Lucy grabbed this one too, along with the packet and emptied them all individually into the bin. "Hey! That's not funny!" Ben said getting a little mad. But Lucy stood her ground trying not to give in to the fear, trying to believe that he would not hurt her.

"I know...I'm not trying to be funny, I'm trying to stop you from dying." Lucy said, voice shaking slightly.

"Well since I have already smoked an entire pack today, I don't think that adding one to the number will make a difference." Ben said with a slight smirk. He knew that cigarettes were bad for him, he had seen all the adverts, all the videos at school, had the lessons but he only smoked when he was stressed, or when he was with a big group of people who were all smoking. He knew he shouldn't, and Lucy was right, he needed to stop, for his unborn child. But as nice as the idea was he knew in the last few months he had become addicted and had been smoking every day with his friends.

Lucy looked horrified at the idea of smoking a whole pack. She looked behind them before asking Ben "Did you say was dad following you?"

"Yer I think he was, but I think he gave up, why?"

"Well I can hear running and it doesn't sound like a jogger."Lucy said lowering her voice. Ben swore quietly before running down a path surrounded by bushes forming an arch way. "Not down there!"

"Why?"

"It leads to a river, so you can keep going down there until you fall into the river, that by the way, just pops out of nowhere" she said bluntly "cos I've done that and it is not fun, or you could come with me as I know this place like the back of my hand." Lucy took a few steps before slowing to a standstill. "Why am I helping you again?"

"Cos I'm your brother and you are a really really cool and nice person?" Ben ventured a guess, knowing that it was likely she would now want to milk up the situation of him being told of.

"Alright, but... you gotta cover for me, if Dad turns on _me_." Ben nodded as Lucy led him to a hiding place. Lucy lead him to a spot, from just five feet away it looked like some bushes but once Lucy showed him the way in Ben saw that in fact the bushes hid two trees, that had branches in just the right places to form seats, and then with the help of ply board, shelves and a table in front of one of the seats. One of the shelves was thicker than the rest, with several layers glued onto one another. This then had two cup holders made by cutting out some of the wood and another larger cut out like a tray for other objects. On the floor was a sheet of tarpaulin pegged down, that Lucy revealed to have a picnic blanket and two cushions under, which they sat down on.

"This is so cool! Did you... like make it or what?"

"Me and this kid Leon, who used to live at the Home made it. Sometimes me and Soph hang out here with Sammy; sometimes it's just me and Sam. But before Leon left it was our place just for us two, and Sammy of course. It gets noisy and busy at the Home, it's nice to escape, you know."

"Yer, it's like that at Dads when everyone meets up, by that I mean everyone who came here, they comes over when I stay, act like it's a special occasion or something. But I'm round every other weekend and one full week every other month, roughly so I don't get why they all have to come round." he said shrugging "Still can't believe you made this, how old were you?"

"Ten, but Leon was twelve. He was really good with his hands, probably still is but he left eight months ago and I haven't seen him in six." Lucy's voice had started to get shaky once they had reached the hiding place but it was only really beginning to notice now.

"You ok?" Lucy nodded, but Ben knew she was lying and after what little he had heard from Chandler about her apparent fear of men he felt he needed to make it clear he was not a threat. It pained him to see his sister (who, yes he had just met, but she was still his sister) visibly scared to be in his presence. "Lucy I might be a bit of a player and an amateur boxer, but you don't have to worry, it's ok, I'm not going to hurt you." Ben said softly.

"I know you meant that to calm me, but, well people have said that before and hurt me so... I don't mean to be scared, I mean it's pathetic really, your my brother, you're not going to do anything... but, well I can't help it, I have just had some very bad experiences but, you know what the weird thing is? I can't even remember the worst ones, I just know they happened." She whispered slowly, close to tears. "You know you're gunna have to face him at some point, and it's going to ten times worse now you're avoiding him when you do."

"I never said that it was a good choice, but now I have chosen I will stick to it for as long as I can." He whispered back. Hearing the footsteps they both held their breath. The footsteps stopped at the sound of running.

"Mr Geller! I found Sammy." A girl's voice called.

'Who's that?' Ben mouthed to Lucy, 'Sophie' Lucy mouthed back more as a realisation to herself than to answer Ben's question. Her eyes widened realising the implications of her arrival 'She's got Sammy! He'll sniff us out!' Lucy whispered just loud enough for Ben to hear. The sudden realisation for Ben was that even if his dad could not see where the dog had gone to, Sophie would know as she came here often.

Ben looked around to see a silently retreating Lucy. 'Where are you going?' he mouthed, eyes wide.

"You never said I had to go down with you and anyway you said you would cover for me, I have no obligation to get caught" she whispered so quietly Ben could not here all of what she said. She dashed out through a hidden pathway she knew by heart. Ben was left on his own knowing it was a matter of seconds before he was discovered.

Lucy emerged from a small gap between some bushes just out of view of her father and Sophie. She ran up to them and huffed and puffed far more than necessary to make it appear like she had been running for a while. "You guys seen Ben? I was running after him but I lost him in the woods over there." She pointed to the area she had just come from, as Sammy ran up to her, excited to see her. "Hello boy, I haven't been gone _that_ long." She said to him in the voice that just seems to slip out when talking to animals and babies.

Ross shook his head in response to Lucy's question before telling the girls to go home while he continued to search for Ben. Once they said goodbye, Ross ran off to where Lucy had pointed. "Thanks for fetching Sammy; I assumed he'd follow me."

"So 'kay, is he in there?" Sophie asked pointing to Ben's hiding place. Lucy nodded before telling Ben to get out and go back to the hotel. "Don't you feel bad for your dad, he might be searching for ages? Plus it's getting dark." Sophie said once Ben was out of sight.

"Naa" she said as she jogged over to the bin and bent over to pick something out.

"What the hell are you doing?" Sophie said a bit too loudly.

"Shhh! I'm leaving some clues." She said as she pulled out Ben's old cigarette packet and cigarettes. She placed them strategically so that it looked like they had fallen out of the pocket of someone who had been running in the direction Ben had gone in. "Ben smokes." She informed Sophie so that she would understand.

"You sneaky bit-"

"Come on we need to leave!" Lucy cut Sophie off halfway through swearing. They both ran back to the Home before it got too dark, with Sammy running in between them occasionally getting lightly kicked. Lucy hoped that her father would either leave the park on his own accord or see the packet of cigarettes and go back to the hotel. However she also hoped that he would be long enough to buy Ben some time, to think about how to face their father.

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Thanks for reading, please review cos it makes my day :)


	13. Chapter 13

hello :)

thank you for the reviews, please keep it up

disclaimer i don't own anything :)

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Chapter 13

The man stood over her small fragile body, far smaller than a girl of her age should be. He was past the point of just being drunk, he had been drinking all day with the girl's mother, and now she was passed out in her room. He had finished with her and now he wanted to have some fun with her daughter. The fearful look in her eyes made him laugh and the cuts and bruises he had inflicted made him feel dominant and powerful. He raised his hand to hit her again, causing a small scream to be released from the child's mouth. From the look in his eye it was clear that what he had next in mind would inflict a different kind of abuse.

Lucy shot up in bed screaming and covered in sweat. Sophie hardly moved at the sound of yet another night terror. Lucy had them most nights and woke up terrified and screaming but with no memory of the actual dream. Sophie believed that her conscious brain blocked out the dreams but her sub conscious let the memories flood back. As sorry as she felt for her friend she hated being woken up every night. They had shared a room for about a month before Lucy was sent to one of the many foster homes she had lived in. In that period she had been woken up every night by Lucy, who at that point in time had never said anything to her and Sophie thought that she was just a weird messed up girl, which to be honest she kind of was. Lucy had only stayed at the foster home for a little while as her night terrors had gotten to the point where she was having several in one night, and the foster family could not deal with it. But when she came back Sophie herself had been sent to a family so she hadn't gotten to know her until a year or two later.

"Sorry Sophie, I can't help it." Lucy apologised.

"So 'kay, not your fault is it? Just try get back to sleep and don't have another one, please." Sophie mumbled sleepily.

Joey walked into Ross and Rachel's room. "Hey man, you going down for breakfast?"

"Hey Joe, we only just woke up, but I'll be ready in about ten minutes but as for Rach, she'll be about half an hour to an hour. Why don't you try Chandler and Mon or Phoebs and Mike. And if you see Ben, tell him I need to have... a word with him." Ross said as he buttoned up his shirt.

"Ok, I think Ben's already gone down for breakfast, you know I still don't get why he didn't share a room with me I wouldn't have minded."

"Because David needs an adult to look after him, he's only four."

"Then why not Jack?"

"Well its he's a bit of a trouble maker and you know he doesn't listen to a word you say, if anything he brings out the child in you, and Ben can actually control him most of the time. Plus we assumed you would end up bringing a lady friend home with you, like you did last night."

"Oh yer, I wonder where she went, cos she's not there now? You know Phoebe and Mike left Cougar and Daisy in a room on their own..."

"Well that's their choice not mine. And I think they keep the door open all the time."

Joey shrugged off Ross's response. "Alright, I'm going to go for breakfast now cos I'm starvin', see you down there."

"Ok, see you in about an hour." Ross said as he went across the room to wake up the boys. He opened the door to see David and Jack play fighting as quietly as they could, and surprisingly although David was half Jack's age he was doing alright.

"You are such a weakling Jack! I'm only four and I'm winning!" David said with a big smile.

"No you're not! I'm winning, and trust me I was being nice before and not using all my power but now you're going to have to deal with my wrath!" Jack said pinning David down.

"Hey! I'm only small, cut me a break!" David whined.

"Naa, I don't think so!" Jack laughed as he started to tickle David.

"Jack... stop... I'm gunna... pee my...self!" Jack cried out in between his high pitched giggles.

"Alright boys that's enough boys'." Ross said coming into the room. "Jack get off of him before it's too late!" Ross said raising his voice.

"Oh no, oh no, Jack get off!" David screamed. After a couple more tickles and an irritated looking Ross walking up to him Jack backed off as David ran to the toilet. "Daddy! I wet myself!" David called from the bathroom.

Ross looked very irritated and glared at Jack before going to get some fresh clothes for his son. "Ok I'm coming in with some clothes David."

"I'm sorry Davie, I didn't think you would actually... you know... wet yourself."

"Well I did, you... stupid, adopted kid!"David attempted to give a comeback as he came out of the bathroom. Jacks eyes widened at what he had said before charging at him and knocking him over.

"Oh G*d." Ross sighed. "Boys! Stop it now!"

Joey entered the breakfast room and found Ben and sat down next to him. "Hey. Your dad wants to talk to you."

"I know." He said cheerfully.

"I don't think it's a good thing."

"I know."

"Ok are you high or something?"

"I don't do drugs... most of the time. But no I'm not high, I just know what I'm gunna say to him." Ben replied

"And what is that exactly?" Joey asked.

"'I'm sorry, I messed up and I am going to try and do my best to be a good dad.' And then if he shouts at me I will just deal with it or more likely block it out."

"Oh... well what food have they got up there? I'm starvin'."

"The usual, English breakfast and cereal and stuff like croissants and bagels." Ben replied. Joey let out a small moan before running up to the buffet cart. Ben half sighed half laughed as he watched Joey pick up two plates and cover both of them with food, he then came back over to the table and went back to get a coffee.

"You doing anything today?" Joey asked Ben, with a mouthful of sausage and bacon.

Ben looked at Joey before deciding whether to tell him about his lunch date "you remember Becky... Becky Langford?" Joey looked at Ben bemused, clearly having no recollection of the girl. "We dated when we were like fourteen-fifteen, she moved to England, so we broke up? Ring any bells?" Ben said patronisingly to Joey.

"Ahh yer I remember...why?" Joey said nodding his head.

"Well I bumped into her yesterday, which now I think about it was really weird, I mean what were the chances? Anyway, we said we would catch up at lunch over at the cafe we were at yesterday."

"Nice, you gunna make a move?"

"I would... if I weren't about to become a father and we were going to be in the same country for a period of time." Ben said after some serious thought.

"Yer, I guess that's the best way to go about it..."

"Whata you doing?"

"Reporting those guys who beat up your dad and Lucy yesterday to the cops. Lucy said not to but I mean we gotta do something."

"I guess." Ben replied, not convinced that they should go to the cop's if Lucy didn't want them to. At that point everyone else came in, all looking refreshed and ready for the day except for Ross who had already had to deal with Jack and Daniel. Ben swallowed the rest of his orange juice before getting up "I gotta go man." he said patting Joey on the back. On his way out, avoiding his family, he stopped to talk to some attractive blonde girls in there early twenty's. Ross debated going over to him and talking to him now but at the risk of making a scene he left his son alone. So he followed the waiter with the rest of the gang to Joeys table, once they were all seated he would look less odd, no longer sitting on his own at the massive table. After sitting down they realised they would have to get straight up to get their breakfast, but not wanting to look stupid and get back up straight away they waited about a minute before they got up and went to the buffet cart to get their breakfasts.

"Hey, Chandler you coming to the police station with me later?" Ross asked as he had been the first on the scene and he had found Lucy.

"I thought she said not to do anything?" Monica asked.

Ross nodded "Well yer... but I'm not gunna let them get away with it."

"I know that, and I'm not saying its acceptable what they did, but you don't want to upset her, for all you know there may be other reasons as to why she doesn't want the police involved." Monica told Ross apprehensive about involving the police against Lucy's permission.

"What do you mean? They might be threatening her? Cos if so, that's even more of a reason to get them involved." Ross said voice starting to edge into aggression.

"I don't know, but if you tell them she will have to be questioned, and maybe that's too close to home for her." Monica replied remembering her research on her niece.

"What do you mean?"

"Well like I tried tell you guys in the cafe last night, when she was four her adopted father died in a car crash, which I believe she was also in. Once this happened understandably her mother fell into a deep depression which she never came out of. In an attempt to... get out of the depression she started drinking and sleeping around. It was never discovered if... any of these... men ...h-hurt her. But there was a fair amount of evidence that they... did, however... she never said if they did or not." Monica's voice started to break and everyone's shocked and grave faces were making it harder. Thankfully the children were all sat at the end eating and chatting, oblivious to the conversation going on between the adults.

"You mean they...they... that's disgusting, she was like four!" Ross shouted, getting an angry glance from a waiter, which really only had to take people to their tables and get tea and coffee.

"I know but it's not fact... so on Christmas, so just before her fifth birthday or the Christmas after, the article wasn't clear, there was a fire, her mom was drunk and tried to cook a Christmas dinner. You can guess how that went. So when the firemen show up they see how bad a state she's in and take her into child services. But my whole point is that she would have been asked questions, and if we tell the police they're going to ask questions too. So maybe she doesn't want them involved because it will remind her of all that. But it's just a theory." Monica said slowly, finding it hard to say aloud. Everyone was looking at her processing what she had said, apart from Joey who was having trouble keeping up with what Monica had said. Confused by her sentences that she had missed out words that were too painful to say aloud. Phoebe was the first to say something in response to Monica's theory.

"And I thought my childhood was bad..."

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	14. Chapter 14

Hello, sorry for taking so long to update but i had assessments and other things that meant i had other things to focus on, then once i had finished with all that i had some writers block and then it was christmas so that's why it took a while. While we're on the subject of christmas i hope you had a good one :)

thanks for the reviews and please keep them coming :)

disclaimer - i don't own friends, sadly :/

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Chapter 14

Phoebe was the first to say something in response to Monica's theory. "And I thought my childhood was bad..."

"Well, I get that and it makes me sick but surely Ross can still press charges? They can't get away with what they did." Rachel said firmly trying to hide her disgust, how anyone could do that to a child was beyond her. Sure she had read or seen the stories on or in the news, but she had never come face to face with one. Rachel tightened her grip on Ross's hand, unsure of what the response would be.

"I don't know if that would work, wouldn't it be against the law to not tell them all of it? Chandler asked concerned.

"I don't know, we could tell them but say she doesn't want to press charges... would that work?" Ross asked them unsure of what he should do.

"How are we supposed to know, you're the clever one." Chandler said with a small smile, all the while avoiding Phoebe and Mike's subtle attempts to get his attention. Everyone knew what had happened but were giving them the space they needed to work it out, they had all been friends for long enough to know that bugging them to talk about it would make everything worse, so they left them knowing that if they wanted to they would talk to them about it when they were ready. Like when last night Chandler had talked to Joey out in the hall for about ten minutes before the girl from the cafe came out of his room and lured him back in, leaving Chandler sat on the floor leaning on the wall.

Ross sighed "I'm planning on calling later and then we could all go out after lunch. I'll see if I can change her mind, maybe she can write a statement instead of having to go into the police station?" Ross suggested. There was a murmur of response, as everyone dug into the breakfasts.

"Luuuuuccccyyyyy!" Ralf, a fourteen year old who also lived at the home and Lucy had a bit of a crush on, shouted from down stairs. "Your dad's on the phone!" Lucy mumbled a response and slowly hopped down the stairs one step at a time. "You ok?" Ralf asked, hoping Lucy would not slip into a bad mental state while her dad was here. It seemed completely random as to when it would happen and for how long, but when it did, she barely did or said anything. One day she would be fine the next she would be irritable, sulky and barely talk and within a day she'd just be sitting in her room all day and not talk to anyone. Lucy nodded her head, sighed and then shook it, sighed again and then shrugged. Ralf awkwardly leaned in and gave her a lose hug, before handing her the phone. Had Lucy been in a better state of mind the brief hug would have been a moment she cherished but right now she was preoccupied with the tangled web of thoughts which was her brain.

"Hi..." Lucy said in the same tone as Ross when he was troubled.

"Hey. You ok?" Ross asked concerned.

She made an incomprehensible grunt.

"... Ok... are you feeling up to meeting up for lunch today"?

"I guess..." Lucy shrugged not really wanting to do anything but feeling like she owed it to him to go along. "Where we gunna go?" She asked with slight optimism at the thought of having a meal out at a nice restaurant.

Lucy approached the restaurant, it was not all that posh but it still made Lucy feel out of place and under dressed. It had a waiting area where she found her family sat around a coffee table chatting away. The waiter gave her a puzzled look before asking if she was meeting someone. Lucy pointed over to Ross and the rest of the gang and the waiter led her over and took her drink order. She greeted them as she slumped down into the chair, looking around the restaurant she took in a deep breath knowing she would have to engage in conversation. Jack and Judy stood up and walked over to her. "Hello we're your grandparents, I'm Judy and this is my husband Jack. It's nice to meet you." Judie said slowly, as if talking to someone who spoke little English.

"Hi-ya, you know you don't have to speck slowly to me you know, I can understand what you say." Lucy said in an equally patronising voice. To this Judy recoiled while Jack laughed. Everyone's mouths dropped not knowing quite what to say.

"Well I was unsure how good your English would be, I don't know how well you've been educated." She defended herself before changing her tune and having a go at Lucy "And I would watch what you say young lady. You should talk to people with respect and be polite." Judy replied horrified by her rude outbreak.

"When you're polite to me then I'll be polite to you. But I'm afraid I don't much like being patronised like that, so if you could not do that again, that would be just great." Lucy said holding her thumbs up and smiled sarcastically, immediately regretting it after. But truth be told she was not used to talking to people of that age and class and had no experience to work on plus she was in no mood to be treated like Judy had.

"Ross!" Judy said high through her teeth in a high pitch "Can I talk to you alone for a minute." Ross grimaced and then got up and walked over to the side with his mother and father.

"I can't believe you just did that..." Monica said in disbelief unsure if she was proud of her niece standing up to her parents or not.

"I didn't mean to... I'm just... not having a great day..."

"You mind us asking why?" Rachel asked.

"I don't mind you asking but I don't know myself so you'll have a hard time finding out why." She said, it coming out a lot more bitterly than she had meant. The comment left everyone in silence. Judy walked back over to the group and sat down while mumbling angrily to herself; Jack sat down with an awkward and apologetic smile. Ross hesitated before joining Rachel at the table.

"Could the service _be _any slower?" Chandler said trying to break the tension before picking up his coffee and taking a sip. For the next few minutes there was silence until a waitress came and showed them to their table.

"So where's Ben?" Lucy asked noticing his absents. He was the only family member she had felt like she had actually bonded with.

Ross shrugged before Joey answered. "He's on a date."

"Who on earth with, you've been here for like three days." Judy said unsure if she was happy that her grandson had a date, unlike Monica at that age who had just sat around doing nothing, or if she was angry that the date was more important to him than his family.

"And how do you know about this and not me?" Ross asked, worried that he was losing his son.

"He told me at breakfast that he had a date with that... B-Becky girl? Yes, Becky... something." Joey said slowly.

"Care to elaborate Joe?" Chandler quipped.

"That girl that he dated a few years ago. Then she move here so they broke up."

"Oh Becky Langford, she was nice." Ross thought aloud, remembering her and then the heart break Ben had gone through when she left.

"Why is he going on a date? He just knocked up some other girl, who I swear he has not even told us the name of."Phoebe said forgetting that Jack and Judy knew none of this.

"What?" Judy asked looking at Ross but then turning to Monica. "Why did you not tell me. Ross I can understand, he was protecting his son, but you Monica why did you not tell me? It's like when you hid the fact that Bens mother was a ... lesbian... you knew that was why they split up but you kept it from me and your father. I can't believe I'm going to be a great grandmother, this is too soon, you need to talk to your son Ross, get him under control."

Ross sighed angrily as Monica's eyes widened "That, that is so not fair, I actually respect my brother enough not to go and tell you everything that he hasn't told you." No one said anything for awhile until Cougar needed the toilet so Mike took him. Chandler visually sighed as he left the room "You guys really need to work it out; you can't keep going on like this." Monica remarked.

"Well... yer we do and I hate to say it but I miss him..." Chandler mumbled.

"Well please do it tonight, cos I am fed up with all the complaining and worrying." Phoebe asked irritated. Chandler nodded slowly. The conversations died down and Ross took this as his entrance to tell Lucy about him having reported the attack to the police earlier.

"Hey umm... Lucy you know what happened yesterday?" Ross said unsure how to go about the conversation. Lucy frowned but nodded her head slowly. "Well I thought about it and well... we told the police, so you know hopefully they'll get locked up or something..."

"Oh..." the look of betrayal in her eyes broke Ross's heart. "Will... Will I have to do anything?" She said softly after a moment's hesitation.

"Just a statement I think... "

"It'll just go to the magistrate's right; it won't go on further, will it? Do we have to do anything; I mean really, what did they do that was _that _bad?" Lucy asked getting nervous.

"What? Yes of course we have to do something! They left both you and Ross unconscious! When I found you, you were a mess, how can you say it's ok for them to get away with it?" Chandler said raising his voice a little unable to understand why she didn't want the police to know.

"I just... just know... of people... who have done... a lot worse and, and gotten away with it..." Lucy said meekly, fidgeting uncomfortably knowing there was nothing she could do to change their minds.

Chandler screwed up his face in confusion and then opened his mouth to ask 'what did they do?' but closed it when Monica gave him a death glare. At this point Monica felt like her suspicions were confirmed, she had been abused, what else could she be talking about? The awkward silence dragged on until Mike and Cougar came from the toilets the only noise was coming from the children who were having some kind of discussion, which was slowly getting slightly louder. It was at that moment Jack and Erica started to grow louder in their discussion that had been quietly going on the entire time. "Is not her fault Mom says she's been through a lot, you can't blame her." Erica defended.

"But it's just weird. You can't just act like that and not expect to be asked questions. She can't just start acting like it's not our business when it is." Jack started to raise his.

"Why? Why is it our business? We hardly know her you haven't even spoken to her I bet." Erica said back also raising her voice, both oblivious to everyone at the table watching their growing argument. Everyone felt like they should stop it before it got more serious but they all wanted to know what they were talking about.

"Well I talked to her a bit but I bet you haven't either." Jack teased.

"Well no not really, but I haven't had the chance yet, but at least I'm giving her a chance instead of making snap judgments on someone you barely know." Erica said as Lucy looked down knowing they were talking about her.

"Are you talking about Lucy, cos I don't think that's very nice I mean she's right there" She pointed to Lucy "and Jack you've be talking mean about her for ages."

"Ok that's enough kids I think." Monica said suddenly feeling guilty for letting the convocation last that long.

"Monica you must learn to control your children, if you let them get away with that kind of thing you'll see them become rude, disrespectful" she hinted to Lucy with and gave her a glare which Lucy returned "and violent and before you know it they are in trouble with the police."

Lucy scoffed "And you're saying that this is all going to happen from a little argument?" Lucy said raising her eyebrows.

"Well it can... why are you defending them anyway? They were talking about you. But I agree with what little jack said, from what I have heard. You do owe them an explanation, tell they about yourself, we're family after all. So why can't we know?" Judy questioned.

" you can't just demand me to tell you about my past, have you ever considered that maybe it's painful for me to talk about it and as to why I defended them, well let's just say after all that I still prefer them to you." She smiled sarcastically before getting up. "I can see this was a mistake, I'm going home."

"Oh don't go. Stay, please?" Ross begged not wanting yet another day out together to be ruined.

"I'm sorry but I'm not having a good day as it is, maybe if I'm feeling better later I'll drop by." She said as she left the table and walked away.

"You couldn't even try could you mom? Just be polite and get to know her?" Ross said irritated that his mother had done that.

"I did nothing wrong, that girl might as well have been brought up with wolves, her behaviour was disgusting." Judy said, still having a hard time digesting the conversation she had had with Lucy.

"You have no idea what she's been through, you can't judge her." Monica said passionately. "Why don't me, Rach and Phoebs go talk to her?" Monica said, the girls nodded and they all stood up.

"What about your food?" Ross asked.

"Give us a call, we've got our phones." Rachel replied before following the girls out of the restaurant. Outside they found Lucy sat on a bench biting her lip to stop herself from crying. "Hey. You know we're not mad at you right?"

"Why wouldn't you be I shouted at your mum for a start" she said looking at Monica. "and she's right I do owe you an explanation, and I want to tell you I just can't make myself relive it, or certainly not all at once."

"Lucy , I'm not mad at you if anything I envy you, my Mom is always annoying me and no one ever says anything, but at least you have the guts to stand up for yourself. You don't need to tell us anything till your ready." Monica smiled gently.

"Most nights I have these horrible nightmares, I don't remember them but I always wake up screaming. I think they are about... the men that... my Mum used... to bring... home." Lucy said sincerely. "I only remember one of them the rest just come back in dreams. But the one time I do remember was really scary and he... he..." Lucy stopped as the tears started falling down her eyes.

"Is this the first time you've talked about this?" Phoebe asked. Lucy nodded as the tears continued to fall ferociously down her face. "You mind telling us how old you were?" Lucy held up four fingers before whipping away yet more tears. "You don't have to share any more if you don't want to." Phoebe smiled softly. Lucy nodded and the girls waited patiently for her tears to slow down to a stop. "Why don't we tell you about us now? We know a bit about you so now it's our turn."

"Alright..."

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Thanks for reading and please review :)


	15. Chapter 15

Hello... sorry for taking so long but i have had controlled assessments, exams and lots of home work and well once i got out of the habit of writing and then posting its had to get back in, and the worst bit is that i have had this written for about a week and i just could not be bothered to post, so i am going to try to get back into the habit but i have a couple of end of unit tests this week and family coming for the weekend so i doubt I'll be able to post it up next weekend but i will try :)

just thought i'd share my save of the week with you (if your even still reading this, cos you have most likely skipped this as i do most of the time but anyways), i'm quiet impressed with my skills here, so i was in a group for my english speaking and listing controlled assessment (Worth 7.5%, if anyone cares) and we were performing and i have to say it was not in the best group and as we were performing to the class and teacher one of the people in my group said completely the wrong line, which made little sense with what had just been said and what was about to be said, but in short cos i highly doubt anyone is reading this still, and if you are, then well done and so for you i will shorten this to, thanks to me being able to think on my feet while the others stared dumbfounded, unsure of how to recover, i managed to save the performance. *pats self on back and smiles* so if anyone is still reading this, well why the hell are you wasting your time reading my rubbish up here when the story is down there ˅˅˅ so go and read :)

disclaimer i don't own anything :)

Enjoy, sorry for the wait.

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Chapter 15

"Why don't we tell you about us now? We know a bit about you so now it's our turn."

"Alright..."

"So where do you wanna start?" Monica asked.

"The beginning?"Lucy prompted thinking that it was the most obvious place to start.

"Alright, that makes sense, how bout we tell you one thing about ourselves now and then we can go back and have dinner and all get to know each other better?" Monica suggested, not knowing quite how Lucy would react.

"Umm... maybe we can hang out some other time, I... I don't think I can go back in there." Lucy said resting her elbow on her knees and then covering her eyes with her palms. She sighed deeply before looking up to see Monica's reaction, she was squatting on the floor in front of the bench which Lucy, Phoebe and Rachel sat on.

"She's not all that bad; I mean she has a mean streak a, manipulative, picky, twisted and criticising mean streak." Monica said bitterly "But your Ross's daughter, which means if you play your cards right she might just like you." Monica said with a smile but her bitterness towards her mother's favouritism was clear.

"And the first of those cards is to apologies right?" Lucy asked which the three women nodded their heads in response to. "Well I don't think I can, not right now, and if I did I bet she wouldn't apologise to me." Lucy sighed. "I need to go, maybe I'll see you tomorrow" then more quietly "or maybe not." She got up and walked quickly off before any of them could attempt to stop her.

"Well... I really don't know what to do about all this. I mean if we do like adopt her or whatever the procedure is, we're going to really struggle, David is hard enough work and Emma can be a handful when she wants to be and now with Ben, if things don't go well when he tells Susan and Carol he might need to live with us full time which may mean having a baby around some or a lot of the time. And then add a mixed up child into that. I mean she's lovely but I was talking to one of the ladies who work at the home and she was telling me about these dark patches that she goes through, she basically locks herself in her room and sits there for several days sometimes weeks, she refuses to do anything, she doesn't go to school and she hardly eats or drinks and only her roommate... I can't remember her name, but she's the only one who can get her to eat and drink." Rachel rambled almost at the point of crying. "We can't deal with it, but if we don't well think about what that will do to her self esteem, first she's given up by Emily, so she starts her life feeling unwanted, then she is shoved around foster homes after her adoptive mother gives up on her after her husband's death, not even thinking about how poor Lucy must also be grieving. And then she gets to know her real dad, comes all the way from America and to her it appears like once we got to know her we realised we didn't want her, no matter how much we explain to her that's not the case she will most likely see it that way and so we become just another rejection to her. How can we make a decision like this either way it's going to have a huge affect on us all. I mean you know Ross, how will he deal with knowing he has a daughter on the other side of the world but can't help her because of everything else going on. And then you say, 'well family is about looking out for each other no matter what, no matter what the situation is if a family member needs your help you help them. A-and... a-and I don't know what to do, what if Ben has to move in permanently and then we end up with the baby fifty percent of the time, we will most likely have to move house because Emma's room is not big enough to fit another bed in and even without it were will she sleep, we don't want to make her feel like an inconvenience. I guess we could give her the guest bedroom but then we couldn't have people to stay and that's another person to feed, but at the moment money's not a big issue. At the moment that is." Rachel cried hysterically. Monica and Phoebe gave her a strong supportive hug.

"Oh honey, you need to talk to Ross about all this, and you know you've got all of us to help you, we're all here for you and the family." Phoebe smiled warmly giving Rachel a supportive squeeze.

"What about your food?" Ross asked.

"Give us a call, we've got our phones." Rachel replied before following the girls out of the restaurant. Ross sighed deeply as he watched her leave before turning to his mother.

"I cannot believe you. I already told you before you came and then again after the outburst, she is a delicate child and you are not helping." Ross said suppressing his anger as best he could.

"I did nothing wrong, she is too much like her mother, and it would seem she has similar traits to Monica, it's a shame really I had hoped that all her annoying characteristics would die out of our family line. To be honest I was glad when it was found that Chandler and her would be adopting, no chance of inheriting anything from her or him for that matter" Judy all but whispered the last few words so that Chandler wouldn't hear, but his anger towards what the woman was saying made him extra attentive to what was being said. But he decided that he would let her ramble on and then give a counter speech instead of interjecting at the end of every sentence. "But unfortunately she seems to be the perfect mix of Monica and that retched Emily, that is apart from looks; she looks a lot like you Ross, but not in a weird way, she's quiet pretty really." Ross had his mouth wide open and was ready to ask her to leave but one look at Chandlers made him realise that Chandler was going to deal with this himself. The anger was rising up from within Chandler and Judy paled a bit when she saw him.

"Do you realise what you're saying! You are insane! Monica is the most amazing woman I have ever met and I still wake up every morning and can't believe that she picked me! I look around and see the amazing life we have together and our wonderful children! Why can't you see how amazing she is why can't you love her for everything that she is instead of picking at every little thing that may not be exactly how you want it! Oh and I did hear what you said about me, and yeah, to be honest that really hurt; I know I'm not perfect and maybe you wanted better for Monica but that's just tough luck, for some reason she picked me and you have to learn to accept that and like us for who we are! And as for Lucy, you just need to lay off her, she has been through stuff that you can't imagine, we can't push her to share her past with us, what we need to do is be her friend and get to know her; once she's comfortable then maybe she'll tell us about her life but until then we all need to support her and love her for who she is! You are not helping and unless you can grow up and actually help her through all this I suggest you leave, go back to America and think about what you have done to this poor girl! And what you have done to Monica her entire life by pushing her down for the stupidest things! And I am telling you now don't even question Monica's parenting skills when you have been such a horrible mother to her and you know full well what a wonderful mother she is!" Chandler shouted, oblivious to the three waiters and waitress heading over to their table.

"Hello sir, I'm afraid that we have had some complaints about this table and if we get one more complaint or we see any more disruptive behaviour we will have to ask you to leave."

Judy's neck stiffened as she looked around in embarrassment "I don't think that will be a problem anymore, me and my husband were just leaving." Judy got up quickly and pushed her chair under the table and grabbed her purse. Jack just sat mouth wide open still in shock from everything that had been said. "Jack!" Judy called breaking him from his trance. "We are going, now Jack! Get up. Please." Jack shot up and jumped out of the chair, grabbed his coat and walked out of the restaurant.

"I don't think you'll have any more complaints now sir, I apologise for the previous disruptions. We were having an issue that has now been resolved." Chandler told the waiters.

"You call that a result?" Rachel asked. "She just stormed out and pulled Jack along after her." Jack looked up as his name was mentioned.

"What you talking about?" Jack asked.

"We were talking about your granddad and grandma." Chandler answered irritated that he had fought in front of all the kids.

Jack smiled his sweet cheesy smile "I thought you was talking bout me." Jacks expression changed as he opened his mouth to ask another question.

"Were, not was son." Chandler smiled correcting his son English "and while we're at it, it's about not bout." Jack nodded and mouthed the sentence with the corrections in; it was something that Monica had put in place so that they would learn from their language mistakes.

"And you all make fun of me correcting people's grammar mistakes..." Ross mumbled.

"Different when it's a kid." Joey whispered loudly to Ross.

Jack rolled his eyes at the adults boring conversation "Why did you fight with Grandma? You and mommy are always saying shouting is bad. So why were you, are you bad?" There was a general murmur of agreement and wondering for the other children.

Chandler's eyes went wide with panic not knowing how to answer the question. "Umm..." his eyes darted to the other adults at the table, all who shook their heads leaving the answer to Chandler. "You're right shouting at people is bad and I'm sorry, though it's probably your grandma I should apologise to, but sometimes... when people have two very different views it's hard for them to stand up without... getting angry. And I'm really sorry you guys witnessed that but I didn't like how she was talking about your Mother." Chandler answered as best as he could.

"Ok, well I don't much like Grandma, but I like Mommy, so I don't mind that you got angry." Jack smiled. "Do you have my DS?" Chandler nodded and his son held out his hand expectantly. Chandler made no move to give his son his DS; instead he raised his eyebrows indicating he wanted Jack to ask politely. "Please can I have my DS?"

He started playing the game and left everybody to be in his own little world. Emma and Erica got back to chatting and playing with their dolls with Daisy looking over, trying to join in. Cougar had moved from next to his father to perching on Jack's chair, both playing with some army men. Emma looked out the window to see her mother, aunt and Phoebe on and around a bench which Lucy was sat on. She had yet to make her mind up about the girl and found her confusing to figure out. They had talked a bit on the first day they had met but most of what she knew about her came from listening in to the conversations the adults had had. She seemed nice enough to her but she had some odd tendencies, like the way she constantly hugged herself and rubbed her hands together. She also avoided talking about anything to do with her past, she was running away from her past and not looking back, even at just nine Emma knew that running was not a good idea, at some point her past would catch up with her and it would not be a pleasant experience. She hoped that while they were in England they would get the chance to get to know each other better, she was her sister after all. Out the window Emma could see Lucy get up looking tearful and leave the three adults. The nine year old could not even imagine what had happened to her half sister, but she realised at that point that she needed to get to know her and help her, after everything she had been through, she needed a family. Her biggest fear was that her new sister would stay closed and create havoc for the family, they were already struggling with Ben's behaviour issues and whenever he came round arguments were sure to follow, and now he had gotten another girl pregnant, which was really icky, things were sure to get worse once they returned home. So if they did in fact bring Lucy with them or she came over to the states a bit later things would only get worse if she was as damaged as Emma perceived. Although the girl did a good job most of the time hiding from the truth, Emma had always had a knack for seeing past people's masks and into their souls and Lucy was no exception.

"Ems you there? Earth to Emma?" Erica called waving her hand, which still held her Barbie, in front of Emma's face, wondering why her cousin was staring into space.

"Huh? Oh yeah sorry, I zoned out for a bit then." Emma apologised before getting back into the game with the three Barbie's they had on the table. "Will you go to the dance with me, Ken?" she asked in a high pitched voice. Once again entering the world of dolls and leaving behind the world of adult problems and family issues. For a seven year old she spent way too long mixed in with the adult world and listening in on her parent's conversations.

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Review please, they always leave me with a huge smile for the rest of the day and i squeal like a little girl crossed with a dolphin when ever i see i have a new one and then continuously make wierd dolphin sounds whilst reading them which results in my family giving me very weird looks but oh well :) so basically after all that rambling all i want is one teeny tiny little review, and if you bothered to read all that they surely you be bothered to make a small review :)  
(in a the sort of mood todaywere i could talk and talk or should i say type and type, so sorry for that :) )


	16. Chapter 16

Hello, first of all thanks for all the reviews :) they're much appreciated :)  
i have sped things up in this chapter as i realised i was taking far too long to get anywhere, but please let me know if i need to go back and cover something that doesn't make sense. I would much rather add a chapter in to fill in any gray areas than have ou confused :) ALso i finally made a plan for the story cos i realised this was going to take like 100 chapters so i have done that, and its still ging to be long but a LOT shorter than if i had not made one :)

This is quite long as it fills in the rest of the week so enjoy :) And please let me know if its to much covered and not enough detail or something :)

disclaimer - i don't own friends or any of the places mentioned etc.

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Chapter 16

The rest of the week was spent trying to be a family, going into central London, visiting Madame Tussauds, the London Eye and the London Dungeons. Which to everyone's surprise Lucy had never visited.

"How have you never been, you live in London? And I know London's a big place and all but still, for someone who has lived their whole life somewhere within London, you would have thought you would have been to at least one." Chandler went on, as they all queued up for the London Eye, the first of their visits.

"Never had anyone who cared enough or thought I was the right age to appreciate them at the same time to take me..." Lucy explained "or thought I was in the right mind set to actually enjoy myself there." Lucy said under her breath, remembering the time she had been planning to go with her last long term foster family. She had been bouncing of the walls with excitement, they were going to go and have a day out like a normal family, and she had been telling anyone who would listen and sometimes even those who wouldn't. But on the Friday before they left an older student, who had enough of her gibbering about the subject, so the mammoth of an eleven year old picked the nine year old up by her uniform collar and shouted at her for a few minutes before throwing her to the ground and punching her a few times in the stomach.

She had in no way deserved the treatment and she knew that but, being at the bottom of the food chain at her juniors school meant that if she annoyed the wrong people a beating like this was sure to occur. The teachers had turned a blind eye to the incident like they always did so Lucy arrived home shaken and in pain, only to find out that her mother, Lisa Gray had been in a car crash and was now in hospital in a coma; it was no surprise to Lucy that her mother had been drunk driving and the accident was not the first of its kind but it was far more serious than the previous, where she had just had a few scratches and had persuaded the driver not to press charges as long as she paid twice as much as the repair bill would cost. It was then decided that it would not be such a good idea to go to London that weekend and instead do it some other time, but they never had.

They all fitted into one capsule on the London Eye and had a good time looking around and taking photos. "So this is what I missed last time eh?" Phoebe mused.

"Yeah, except we didn't go on here cos it wasn't built, but we saw lots of other things. But it is definitely better with you Phoebs, you have no idea how much I missed you while we were here." Joey smiled warmly.

"Aww, I missed you too." Phoebe smiled back as the two hugged it out. Lucy was confused as to why phoebe had missed coming to London, she assumed that it must have been for her real parents wedding.

"Why didn't you go to my parents wedding, Phoebe?" Lucy asked unsure if she should or not.

Phoebe smiled before answering. "I was in my third trimester of pregnancy so I couldn't fly over." Phoebe answered, forgetting that Lucy knew nothing of the triplets. Lucy's face screwed up in an adorably confused fashion, tying to figure out how that was possible when both of her children were so young.

"How... does one have like a growing disorder or something? I've heard a bit about dwarfs, one time I saw one at little chef. I was only little so I asked him if he liked being small because he could disappear easily and play hid and seek really well. He just laughed and said he had never really thought of it like that, but my foster parents thought that what I said was rude and they didn't let me finish talking to him; I wanted to play hid and seek with him as well." Lucy said sincerely, while all the adults except Joey, who was now musing over the thought of playing hide and seek with the seven dwarfs and snow white, and Phoebe who had completely misunderstood what she said.

"Well Chandlers a bit on the small side now that you mention it, but that doesn't mean she's a dwarf." Phoebe said, getting more laughs.

_She? _Lucy turned to look at Chandler, he was not small, he looked about six foot. "Chandlers not small, he's taller than Mike and Joey, and about the same height as my Dad." Lucy said thoroughly confused.

"What?" Phoebe looked at Chandler. "Oh, no honey not this Chandler, girl Chandler; in fact she's about your age you know."

Lucy turned to her father and asked for an explanation. As a group they helped clear up any questions she had about the triplets and the trip to London. The rest of the day passed by in a whirl of tourism and the occasional Fan stopping them to get Joey's autograph. They all enjoyed themselves but it had been a shame when Joey had gone home early with the twins, Cougar, Daisy and David as they had decided the London Dungeons would be too much for them all, Joey included.

In the middle of the week they went back into London for some shopping, as of Monica, Rachel and Phoebe's insistence. Lucy absent minded, followed them around for the morning along with everyone else, the only other people who cared about the shopping were Joey, who enjoyed flirting with all the young, just entering their twenties, shop assistance and finding new clothes that made him look more attractive and muscular, and Emma and Erica who had both fallen in love with fashion like their mothers. "This would look gorgeous on you Lucy; it goes perfectly with your complexion!" Monica said excitedly.

"And if you add this jacket it'll bring out your eyes, you almost wouldn't need mascara." Rachel added, loving the task they had set themselves of making over Lucy.

"You do realise the second I get home I'm going to give anything you buy me to my roommate." Lucy told them in matter of fact way.

Rachel paled a bit "Why, why would you do that, these clothes are just beautiful, and you will look stunning in them, all the boys will want you."

"But I don't care!" Lucy explained exasperated. "I'm twelve; I don't waste money on things that I'm going to grow out of in a few months. I'll hardly wear them and again, I could not care less about fashion." Lucy reasoned.

"But... you can wear them every day at school, show off to your friends." Phoebe challenged. Lucy scoffed at what the women were telling her.

"One, we have to wear a uniform over here. Two, I'm not the type to show off, three if I took these to school... I would be laughed at, accused of stealing them and then probably beat up just because I'm wearing something different an' left with torn up clothes. And finally, I don't really have any friends to show off to, there, that's four reasons. Four reasons for you to not waste your money on me and" she looked at the clothes for a second before pointing at them and saying "these clothes." She was straight to the point, but behind her blunt words was a hint of pity, she had tried to tell them again and again, that she did not want them to buy her clothes but they had not listened.

Rachel looked like she was going to cry, and Lucy cocked her head to the side with a puzzled expression on her face. "I was just trying to do something nice for my...daug...ste... for you Lucy." Rachel whimpered lost as what she should call Lucy, before running off to Ross.

"I'm sorry I didn't mean to upset you, it's just tha-" Lucy was cut off by Monica's sniggers

"Don't worry about her. She cries at everything. So do you go to a private school or do you all have to wear uniform here?" Monica asked finding the concept weird.

"Me? At a private school? Have you seen the state of the home, you think they have that kind of money to waste?" Lucy chuckled to herself.

"Sorry, it's just not the norm to wear a uniform in the states. So what's school like then?" Monica asked.

"Pretty rubbish, I mean lessons are easy as hell, mainly because the rest of the year is a bunch of idiots and the teaches have to teach to their level. But at lunch I go to all the clubs because... otherwise, I... would have to like..." She lowered her voice as it cracked "like sit on my own." Monica and Phoebe's mouths formed a small 'O' shape and they both looked sad at the thought of the poor girl not having any friends to even sit with at lunch. Lucy looked relatively unfazed and continued. "So on Mondays I go to the drama club, which I've actually gotten real good at." Her voice picked up with pure joy. But It quickly disappeared as she went on to explain thither "I mean I always end up being the last picked in a group or having to do a monologue by myself but that's nothing new. On Tuesdays I go to the science club, and It's like me and two year eights boys, who are both really weird, but I guess I can't judge them, cos I'm sure that's exactly how the rest of the year, if not school see me. Anyway on Wednesday I go to athletics, Thursday media club and Fridays I spend doing home work in the library." Lucy smiled shyly with her lips tight together, it was clear that she hated the way she spent her lunch hour but the alternative was just so much worse.

"That's so sad, I'm sorry honey." Phoebe said her voice full of sympathy. "So how does your school system work exactly, cos I'm a bit confused?"

"You've got primary schools, which are sometimes divided into infants and juniors, infants being from foundation stage which is four to five years old to year two which is six to seven, and juniors goes up to six which is ten to eleven. Secondary school then starts with year seven which is ages eleven to twelve to upper sixth form , although not all schools have a sixth form unit, in which case it goes up to year eleven which is fifteen to sixteen. There are two years in sixth form, year twelve and thirteen, so when you finish sixth form you're eighteen. I'm in year seven and I just turned twelve in January." Lucy explained all the while pulling faces of shock, horror and disgust along with a few laughs at some of the clothes the two were picking out for her to try on as she spoke.

"Ok, so that would make you... in what the sixth grade?" Phoebe asked Monica who nodded as she picked out another top that made Lucy scrunch up her face, it wasn't like the clothes weren't nice, in fact she knew they were all very nice and fashionable and was able to appreciate that, it was just that she could not imagine ever wearing them by choice, they were just not her style, they were all very tight fitting and uncomfortable looking. Lucy much preferred baggy clothes when she could, or a pair of not to skinny, skinny jeans. It wasn't that she had a bad figure or was self conscious; in fact she was very slim and had a fair amount of muscle because of her athletics. It was simply that tight clothes were almost always uncomfortable, and given the choice she would always go for comfort. She was comfortable with her own style; it made her fade into the background.

"Hey, Lucy come n' check this out." Ben came jogging up from behind. Ben and Ross had had a very brief talk about his behaviour and his unborn child a few night s ago; however Ben had wormed his way round everything and had not given Ross any straight answers. Ross had decided that he would deal with all that once they went home, not wanting anymore of their time with Lucy wasted on going back and forth with Ben.

Ben brought her just outside the shop to where there was a guy spray painted in silver, to look like a statue. The man was doing some kind of street theatre. It was a weird place to be doing it, but they had seen plenty of people doing similar things on the path that ran out in front of the London eye. What made this guy different was that he was now starting to follow unsuspecting shoppers around and imitate there movement. "Really, you brought me out here, to see that?"

"Well I thought it was kinda funny, plus you looked like you wanted out of there."

"Oh well yer, thanks, shopping really isn't my thing." Lucy smiled up at her brother; over the course of the last few days they had formed a beautiful older brother younger sister relationship and for some reason Ben just felt like he could put his walls down, sometimes he would forget why he put them up in the first place. But then he would remember his date with Becky Langford, and how she had run off when he accidentally told her he was going to be a dad. He would remember school, and report cards, the whole lot. It was the pressure from the outside world that had made him put up his walls and that's how things needed to stay.

Ross had spent a lot of his time sorting out one, the legal side of Lucy moving to America, two, the financial side to it all, three, the living arrangement and finally number four, schools. He had talked to Lisa Grey more on the phone, and had talked to children's services. They had taken some convincing as Lucy had been given up for adoption and technically he had no parental rights anymore, but as she was no longer living with her adopted family and the Geller's were financially stable at the moment they appeared to tick all the right boxes. A DNA test had been done to check that Ross was Lucy's son, although just from looking at the two of them it was clear that he was. It had been decided that as soon as she could get a place in a middle school over in America and the blood tests came back as expected she would move. It had briefly come up in conversations over the week and now they had their final answer, everyone was happy about it but they all had their reservations that none of them had voiced since Rachel had outside the restaurant. Lucy knew they were worried and knew from experience that meeting up with people was very different from living with them but she was going to try hard to not be a burden.

While at London Zoo near the end of the week, Rachel had gotten the chance to talk to Ross about her concerns with the living situation, Ross had told her that they would make it work and that they could always convert the basement from being a second lounge/games room and just have half as a games room and the other half as Lucy's room, it was big enough and they would hopefully have enough time before she came, it made the most sense. Rachel had gone on to ask about money, which Ross had answered with a short and simple reply, "I have tenure, and you're a shoe in for promotion." That had been the end of the conversation; Ross was going to do whatever it took and Rachel understood that and was prepared to support him, despite her fears and doubts.

The week quickly came to a close, with the promise of a place in the local middle school at the start of April, although it was not at the beginning of the semester it was decided that it was the most logical time to transfer. Every one said their goodbye's at the Home, after the week Lucy had really felt like she had gotten to know her family, especial her father, Ben and Emma. Although the age gap between her and Emma was only a few years, Emma was mature for her age and they had had some nice conversations. However there was a clear difference between her and Lucy, Emma was much more of a girly-girl, and this had sometimes left the two with nothing to say because they had no idea how to respond to the other's comment. Lucy and Ben however were much more on the same page; they both were the more outdoorsy type and liked the same kind of music. Lucy overall found it much easier to talk to guys, and Ben just liked talking to someone who didn't judge him or put any social pressure on him.

Ross was the last to say goodbye and he quickly explained how things were going to work, her room in the basement, getting the bus to school, what would happen with her dog and the big issue of her coming over to the states. It had been decided that Joey, as he was not working at the moment and did not have to worry about money, would fly to England stay the night at a hotel and then pick Lucy and Sammy up in the morning, and the three would fly back to America, Joey had decided to have a private flight as it was easiest as they were bringing the dog with them too. With the plan sorted and goodbyes said everyone left for the airport. Lucy stood at the door and waved as they left. Things were going to get real different, real fast.

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Thanks for reading, please leave a review thanks :)


	17. Chapter 17

sorry its taken so long to update, but I've been really distracted lately and then my laptop broke and I only just got it back. and I'm really sorry but I've got exams coming up so all I'm doing now is revising s I wont be able to update again all that soon but I will try and so as soon as my exams are over, but the last one is on the 10th of may so I'm really sorry about that, but more reviews will make me more motivated to write in the little time I can find spare.

thank you for the reviews and please keep them coming, I hope you like the chapter :)

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Chapter 17

They had been back in New York for several weeks and Paige had moved in straight away, at Ben's insistence. It had been an awkward and difficult couple of weeks, especially when Ben was at his mothers, but Paige had since managed to get her aunt to understand the situation and let her move in, unlike her parents who had thrown her out as soon as she said the word 'pregnant'. Shortly after Paige moved out Ben had told Carol and Susan. It had not gone well, but he was still living with them for the majority of the time. Conversations seemed forced and were always uncomfortable. He knew they didn't understand, but there really wasn't much he could say to soften the story, Ben was a player, he had played her. And no matter how he put it he would always come off looking bad.

School was another problem, although it was looked up to if you were a player, knocking a girl up was low, it brought your popularity right down, it always had, Ben himself remembered that in his freshman year he had spent the latter half jeering with Alex, Paige's big brother, and all his other senior year friends at a guy who had knocked up a girl. His name had been something like Aaron or Andy, had been the most popular kid at school, ruled the corridors and the girl, whose name escaped him, had been a cheerleader, but both had been ruined by the scandal and now worked at the local supermarket. Ben was now experiencing the other end of it and it was horrible, the embarrassment was too much. Of course he never told any of his parents about this but he had confided in Lucy once over Skype. That had helped, but between the time difference, school, and homework they had only talked, just the two of them, the once. Now it was just a waiting game, for Lucy to come to America and for the heat at school to cool down.

April came round slowly for both parties, but Ross and Rachel were grateful for the time as it gave them time to fix the house up. It had been hard to do anything when Paige had been staying with them as Ben had just crashed on the couch every night, but once she had gone things started moving quickly. The basement games room had been transformed into a smallish bed room, with the other half still acting as a games room. The bed room had a single bed, a wardrobe (Which Rachel had already taken the courtesy of filling), a chest of draws which had a mirror on top (which Rachel had also filled), a desk with some drawers and a few shelves above it. The walls had been left bare for Lucy to decorate herself and the walls were an off white, ready to be repainted if Lucy wished. It had taken a lot of effort and time but they were finally ready.

. . . . . . .

Lucy was putting the last of her things into the suitcase; she had stripped her shelf of all her possessions and they were all neatly wrapped in bubble wrap and now waiting in a box down stairs. It had not taken long to pack as she owned very little and one suitcase was enough to hold all her clothes and she had an overnight bag so that when she arrived she would not have to unpack straight away to get her pyjamas and clothes for the next day. Adam had insisted on helping her pack, but had been useless; he had just run around the room, occasionally picking up an item of clothing and jumping onto the bed and jumping down dropping it onto Lucy pretending to be a bomber plane.

Lucy placed the last jumper in the suitcase and stood up. As she looked around the room she sighed deeply, she was about to have a real family and in all honesty she was terrified, she could not screw this up. There was so much to worry about, what if they didn't get along as well as they first thought, what if she was a disappointment, what if things got difficult and she got down, they wouldn't know how to help her, how to handle it. She couldn't help it when she got down and depressed, it just happened. If school or home life got too much she just gave up, she had never learnt how to cope with stress and just blocking the world out for a bit seemed like the easiest way, and it work for the most part, locking herself off she had time to think and reconnect with herself and calm down. She knew that there were better ways of coping, without entering a temporary state of oblivion, but she had no idea how to apply the methods to herself. It was better for everyone really, or that's what she tried to convince herself, if they didn't have worry about her problems and she didn't have to listen to their pathetic advice that was completely useless and unhelpful. No one ever understood, so any advice she was ever given was always of no use.

The door bell rang, interrupting her trail of thoughts. Joey had arrived; Lucy swept up her bags and ran down the stairs plopping them down in the corner that was made by the bend in the stairs, and opened the door to Joey. "Hey. How was the flight?" Lucy asked as Joey walked in, instantly being launched upon by an excited Sammy. The dog repeatedly jumped up and down until he was happy that Joey had fully appreciated the fact that he had not forgotten him and was now very exited to see him again.

"Not bad, didn't sleep too well last night 'cos of the jet lag, but heyho. Are you all ready?" Joey replied. Lucy nodded her head and picked up a suitcase and Sammy's lead. "Ok I'll grab some bags and load them into the cab, if you put Sammy in the back seat you can stay with him and I'll come back and get the rest of your stuff. Is all you've got this suitcase, the box and that gym bag?" Joey asked gesturing to the bags by the stairs.

"Yeah and that box there, it has all the stuff for the dog." Lucy said pointing to the box that was on the other side of the hall. "It's heavy." She warned as Joey leant down to pick it up.

"What the hell is in this?"

"Dog food, two dog bowls, dog treats, dog bags, dog bed, dog nail clippers, Extendable 8 meter dog lead, dog harness and Dog chews. Possibly some other stuff I'm not sure." Lucy said slowly trying to remember everything in the box. "And umm... if you don't mind can I have a minute to say goodbye, I'll help you with the bags and then meet you in the taxi." Lucy asked timidly.

Joey laughed softly "Of course, don't worry about the bags and boxes I'll do it, you go say goodbye, do you want me to take Sammy or is he saying goodbye with you." Joey asked, Lucy thought he was being patronising at first about Sammy saying goodbye too, but he was deadly serious.

Lucy smiled brightly at him and told him Sammy was saying goodbye too. She walked into the lounge where everyone had been quietly waiting and gawking at Joey through the door from the living room. Sophie got up off the sofa and ran into her arms. They were dysfunctional and agued like sisters, but they had formed a strong bond over the time they had roomed together, and as much as Sophie was happy for her friend, she was going to miss her like crazy. "I can't believe you get to get out of this hell hole. Always thought I would go first." Sophie attempted to joke, holding back the tears. "And you're travelling on a plane with Joey Tribbiani, you lucky thing."

"Yeah, I guess that is cool, but" Lucy raised her eyebrows slightly "to be honest I'm far more excited about my family you know, I have _no idea_ why that's more important to me." Lucy said sarcastically.

"But it's Joey Tribbiani!" Sophie exclaimed, emphasising on his surname.

"Yeah Sophie _Ashdale _I kinda realised that! I get it and you really don't have to use his full name, it's just a bit weird. You are so star struck, it's really creepy, he's old enough to be your dad, and with his track record he could be." Lucy released Sophie from the hug and went on to say goodbye to the rest of the kids, whether she liked them or not they were all part of her family and she wanted to have the closure of saying goodbye to all of them. Most of them left once she had said bye to them, which hurt a little but to be fair she had done the same thing when other kids left the home that she didn't much like.

When she was done she gave Sophie one final hug before opening the front door and leaving forever. "Ready?" Joey asked opening the door and helping Lucy get Sammy into the taxi.

"Yeah, I think so." Lucy replied with a small smile. The taxi left and started the half hour journey to the air port. The vehicle was filled with small talk between Joey and Lucy, with the occasional bark from Sammy. "What's America really like, cos I've seen some films and TV shows, but is it really like that?"

"Umm... depends what films and shows you've seen, it's not that different to here really except the houses are bigger, certainly where your dad lives, got lots of nice and big family houses, not with loads of rooms but the rooms are big, it's got five bedrooms and a small study, library type thing and then they have converted some of the games room in the basement to be your room. But yeah in America it depends where you go really but Westchester is just like in those films where everyone has those nice big houses with a nice lawn out front and a side walk that runs past all the houses that has patches of grass that have trees in em, you know the traditional American neighbourhood. It's real nice. I'm sure you'll get used to it quickly." Joey said waving his arms around as he described the location.

"Wow, it sound huge, like seven bedrooms huge." Lucy exclaimed trying to get her head round the size of the house.

Joey's face scrunched up in confusion"How did you get seven, they have six, including yours?"

"Well if they turned the study into a bedroom they would have seven, so I'm saying if they used all the possible rooms and used them as bedrooms, they'd have seven," Lucy explained quickly. Joey still looked confused as he mentally counted the rooms and then recounted on his fingers. And then pursed his lips into an 'so true' type expression.

Once they arrived at the airport they were met by a man in a suit who briskly brought them through security and some other places that Lucy paid little attention to. She was too busy looking around her at all the strange sights and sounds, she had never been in an airport or on a plane and now she was going to be going on Joey's private jet. At some point someone took Sammy's lead from her and put him in a travel cage and the cage was then put on the trolley with the rest of the luggage. Before Lucy knew it they were boarding the plane and her passport was being checked for the last time before reaching America. "Here." Joey said handing her a boiled sweet "Pop it in your mouth when we take off and suck it, it'll stop your ears from popping, plus they taste good. Won't be long now, just waiting for the uhh, air to clear or something, I never understand how all the take off stuff happens." Joey admitted. "When are we going to take off?" Joey asked the one and only hostess.

"In four minutes, that's our air slot." The woman smiled politely, she was thin and wore the above the knee skirt well, she was beautiful and had long black hair that flowed perfectly. Joey had hired her purely for her looks, which he since regretted as all he could ever do was watch after her lustfully as it happened that she was in fact married, the hint having been the fact that she was a 'Mrs.' not a 'Miss.' but Joey had failed to pick up on that.

"Ok thanks, could you please bring us a sandwich each and a drink?" Joey asked the woman.

"Sure you don't want to wait till we take off sir?" The hostess asked.

"I'm not hungry right now so don't worry about me." Lucy chipped in.

"You sure?" Joey asked, when Lucy nodded he told the hostess to bring them some food around lunch, which was a couple of hours away. "You ready, we're taking off." Joey said as the plane picked up speed down the runway and he started to unwrap his sweet and put it in his mouth.

Lucy swallowed and nodded. She placed her head up against the window as the plane's wheels left the ground and watched as the airport grew further away. Everything slowly getting smaller, London leaving her sight...

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Thanks for reading and please review :)


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